San Diego- and Beijing-based autonomous vehicle unicorn TuSimple and Volkswagen’s truck subsidiary Traton (XETRA: 8TRA.DE), have teamed up to develop Level 4 self-driving trucks in Europe, the companies announced on Wednesday.
The partners will be testing Scania Level 4 trucks on a route between Södertälje and Jönköping in Sweden. Level 4 vehicles can drive all by themselves in designated regions, leaving the driver or a safety operator the only duty to take over at emergencies.
“Our partnership with Traton accelerates the introduction of autonomous truck technology to new international markets, and we look forward to our global partnership,” said TuSimple president Cheng Lu. Traton also took a minority stake in TuSimple.
In July, TuSimple formed a partnership with Navistar (NYSE: NAV) to co-produce self-driving trucks, which would allow clients to buy directly from Navistar’s distributors in America, Canada, and Mexico before 2024. Navistar also invested in TuSimple, which has already been providing transportation services for companies like UPS and US Postal Service using its autonomous driving vehicles.