Volvo Autonomous Solutions vs Torc Robotics Compared
Volvo Autonomous Solutions is ahead on freight actually moved, and Torc Robotics is ahead on control of its own technology. Volvo buys its driving software from partners (Aurora, then Waabi) and already runs customer freight on Texas highways, while Daimler Truck's Torc builds the whole system itself and is still proving driverless operation on public roads, with commercial sales targeted for 2027.
- Volvo's bet: be the best truck maker for any driver software, and let specialists write it.
- Daimler's bet: own the chassis and the software, so the whole system is designed together.
- For investors: neither unit trades alone. You own them through Volvo Group and Daimler Truck, and Aurora is the listed pure play.
This is educational analysis, not investment advice. Figures come from company releases and press reports dated through early November 2026, and several are secondary summaries; check the filings before relying on any of them.
What do the two programs have in common?
Both are aiming at the same prize: long-haul, Class 8 trucks that drive themselves on interstates between freight hubs, without a person in the cab. Both are focused on Texas, where the roads, weather and rules are friendliest, and both aim to sell a factory-built truck rather than a retrofit. Both parents are among the largest truck makers in the world, and both are working through a weak freight market.
Where they differ is in who writes the driving software. That one choice shapes almost everything else: speed, cost, control, and who captures the profit. It also mirrors the choice facing the robotaxi world, where Uber partners with more than 30 developers while others build alone.
How are the two programs organized?
| Feature | Volvo Autonomous Solutions (VAS) | Torc Robotics (Daimler Truck) |
|---|---|---|
| Parent | Volvo Group, Sweden | Daimler Truck, Germany |
| Role | Truck maker's unit that fits partner software to Volvo trucks and runs the service | Daimler's independent autonomous-driving subsidiary that writes the driving software |
| Driving software | Bought in: Aurora Driver now, Waabi Driver to follow | Built in-house by Torc |
| Truck | Volvo VNL Autonomous, built at the New River Valley plant in Virginia | Next-generation Freightliner Cascadia with a redundant chassis from Daimler Truck North America |
| Model | Open: one truck, more than one driver supplier | Integrated: one company's chassis and software, designed together |
| First lanes | Dallas to Houston, Fort Worth to El Paso | Dallas to Laredo is the first planned lane |
| Base | Aurora terminals in Dallas and Houston | Fort Worth hub at AllianceTexas, plus Michigan testing |
Think of it as two different kitchens. Volvo runs a restaurant that buys its sauce from the best supplier and can switch. Daimler makes the sauce itself, which takes longer to get right but means no one else can change the recipe or raise the price.
Where is Volvo Autonomous Solutions today?
Volvo is in commercial service, with caveats. Its trucks, running the Aurora Driver, have hauled freight for DHL, Uber Freight, DSV and AVI-SPL on the Dallas to Houston corridor. DSV and Volvo announced the first commercial truckload on the VNL Autonomous on May 13, 2026, and a Dallas to Houston lane for AVI-SPL was reported on June 19, 2026. Early DHL runs began in December 2024 with a safety driver on board.
| Measure | Reading | Source and caveat |
|---|---|---|
| Aurora Driver driverless miles | Nearly 440,000 since launch, through the end of June 2026 | Aurora's Q2 2026 shareholder letter; counts all Aurora trucks, not only Volvo |
| On-time record | 100%, with no collisions attributed to the Aurora Driver | Company-reported |
| Volvo trucks planned for 2027 | More than 300 | Secondary summary of Aurora's Q3 2026 results |
| Volvo driverless launch | Planned for the first quarter of 2027 | Secondary summary; earlier trucks had observers or safety drivers |
| Fleet size today | Not confirmed | A 2024 report cited about 20 trucks; treat as out of date |
The honest reading is that the freight is real but the fleet is small, and the "driverless" label depends on the truck. Aurora's own trucks run driverless on the same corridor, while the purpose-built Volvo truck is still being introduced.
What about the Waabi partnership?
In 2025 Volvo added a second software partner, Waabi, so the VNL Autonomous can run either the Aurora Driver or the Waabi Driver. The first Waabi customer, Warp, moves freight on Dallas to Houston with an observer in the driver's seat. Waabi says it will not retrofit its way to driverless and will wait for Volvo's purpose-built truck, with Volvo expecting to begin installing the Waabi system in the first quarter of 2027.
- Upside: two suppliers compete on price and performance, and Volvo is not stuck if one falls behind.
- Downside: Waabi's earlier target of driverless by the end of 2025 slipped, a reminder that dates in this field move.
- Open question: whether Volvo can keep two driver systems safe and supported on one truck.
Where is Torc Robotics today?
Torc is earlier in public-road proof but further along in hardware control. It has shown a driverless truck on a closed course in Texas, opened a Fort Worth hub at AllianceTexas, and in February 2026 widened testing to Michigan public roads on the newest Daimler autonomous chassis. Daimler Truck said at IAA Transportation 2026 that Torc aims to run a heavy truck on public US roads with nobody in the cab before the end of 2026, then begin first commercial freight in 2027.
| Milestone | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Closed-course driver-out validation | Done, in Texas | A closed course is not public roads |
| Fifth-generation Cascadia with redundant systems | Delivered to Torc's test fleet | Backup steering and braking are built in at the factory |
| Short-range lidar | Innoviz selected | A separate supplier covers long range |
| Public-road driverless run | Targeted before the end of 2026 | No confirmation found as of early November |
| Customer freight and sales | Planned for 2027 | Daimler plans to sell Torc-powered Cascadias in the US |
Torc's chief executive has described 2026 as the year of getting all the pieces in place: the safety case, Daimler's requirements and regulators. With two months left, the public-road driverless run remains a target, not a fact.
Which technical approach is better: buy or build?
| Question | Volvo (buy and partner) | Torc (build and own) |
|---|---|---|
| Speed to first freight | Faster: Aurora's software was already driving | Slower: everything must be proven together |
| Control of the roadmap | Shared with suppliers | Complete |
| Cost per truck over time | Pays a software supplier, likely per mile or by subscription | Keeps the software margin, but carries the full development bill |
| Safety case | Each pairing needs its own proof | One integrated proof |
| Risk if the software partner falters | Switch to another supplier | No fallback: the in-house system must work |
| Fit with factory production | Truck built first, software installed later | Chassis designed around the software from the start |
Neither is clearly superior. Buying gets you moving, and building can produce a cheaper and tighter system later. The same debate runs through cars, where Waymo builds everything and Wayve licenses its driver to carmakers.
How does the weak truck market affect both?
Autonomy is a long-term bet funded by cyclical businesses. Both parents had a poor 2025 as freight demand fell and truck orders slowed, which limits how much they can spend and how patient their owners will be.
| Measure (2025) | Daimler Truck | Volvo Group |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | 422,510 trucks, down 8% | Net sales SEK 479.2 billion, down from SEK 526.8 billion |
| Profit | Adjusted EBIT of EUR 3,778 million, down 19% | Adjusted operating income SEK 51.2 billion, down from SEK 65.7 billion |
| Margin | n/a (2026 target of 6% to 8% adjusted return on sales for the industrial business) | 10.7%, down from 12.5% |
| North America | Sales down 26% | Mixed; 2026 truck outlook raised |
| Order trend | Orders up 2% to 425,458 | Recovery expected in late 2026 |
Because truck makers' profits swing with the freight cycle, their trailing earnings can mislead, a problem covered in why a low P/E can be an illusion. The same rate sensitivity is explained in how interest rates affect stock prices, since fleets buy trucks on credit.
Where does the money in driverless trucking come from?
The case rests on a few simple points. A truck with no driver can run more hours a day, because rules on rest periods apply to people, not software. Drivers are a large share of the cost of moving freight, and carriers have struggled to hire them. If a driverless truck costs more to buy but less to run, a carrier saves money per mile.
- Truck makers hope to sell a more expensive truck, with higher parts and service revenue.
- Software suppliers hope to earn a fee for each mile driven or each truck in service.
- Carriers and shippers hope to cut cost per mile and raise reliability.
- Platforms such as Uber Freight hope to match loads with trucks and take a fee. See the Uber stock page.
Each layer needs the others to work, which is why partnerships dominate. The risk is that a gain for one layer is a cost to another, so the final profit pool may be thinner than the headline.
What are the main risks for each program?
| Risk | Volvo Autonomous Solutions | Torc Robotics |
|---|---|---|
| Timing slips | Waabi's 2025 driverless target already slipped; Volvo's own launch is planned for 2027 | Public-road driverless target of end-2026 is unconfirmed |
| Dependence | Relies on Aurora's and Waabi's progress | Relies on its own team solving the whole stack |
| Safety event | One crash on a shared corridor could pause all partners | One crash would hit Daimler's reputation directly |
| Regulation | State and federal rules for driverless trucks are still evolving | Same |
| Competition | Aurora also works with others, so Volvo is not exclusive | Rivals may reach driverless scale first |
| Parent finances | Cyclical, with 2025 profit down | Cyclical, with North American sales down 26% |
A single serious accident would affect the whole industry. The Avride investigation noted in the Uber post shows how one incident can slow a city or a partner.
Who is ahead right now?
| Dimension | Edge | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Freight moved with customers | Volvo | Customer loads on Texas highways since 2024, and commercial truckloads in 2026 |
| Proof of driverless on public roads | Aurora (Volvo's partner) | Hundreds of thousands of driverless miles; Torc's public-road driverless run is still a target |
| Control of the technology | Torc | Owns chassis and software |
| Flexibility | Volvo | Two driver suppliers |
| Factory integration | Torc | Redundant chassis designed with the software |
| 2027 commercial timing | Even | Both aim for 2027 |
If you must pick one today, Volvo has more evidence of freight moved, and Torc has the cleaner long-term design. The winner will be decided by safety record and cost per mile in 2027 and 2028, not by announcements in 2026.
How can you invest in either one?
Neither unit is listed. Volvo Autonomous Solutions sits inside Volvo Group, which trades in Stockholm, and Torc sits inside Daimler Truck, which trades in Frankfurt. In both cases autonomy is a tiny part of a company earning most of its money from trucks, parts and financing, so it will not move the stock.
| Route | What you own | Catch |
|---|---|---|
| Volvo Group or Daimler Truck | The whole truck business, with autonomy as an option | Foreign listings, cyclical earnings, small autonomy exposure |
| Aurora (AUR) | The software partner behind Volvo's trucks | Q3 2026 revenue of about $3 million against a net loss of about $234 million, per a secondary summary |
| A US truck maker such as PACCAR | Heavy-truck cycle, with Aurora as a PACCAR partner in the past | Not autonomous-focused; see below |
| A platform such as Uber | Freight matching and AV partnerships | Trucking is a small part of Uber |
Neither Volvo, Daimler nor Aurora is in the universe this site screens, so there are no filter checks for them here. The nearest listed truck maker in the data is PACCAR: on October 31, 2026 it was at $101.91, passed 7 of 8 value filters, and its price implied 17.4% yearly free cash flow growth, with a margin of safety of negative 44.8% on this site's DCF. That is a reminder that even a high-quality truck maker can be priced for a recovery. Learn how to read those numbers in what is a reverse DCF.
What suppliers benefit whichever truck wins?
Several suppliers sell to every autonomous program, which makes them a way to own the theme without picking a winner. Sensor makers supply lidar and radar, chipmakers supply the computers, and parts firms supply wiring and connectors. In this site's data, Aptiv supplies wiring, connectors and software to vehicle makers, and NVIDIA sells the chips many driving systems run on. Both are covered in the Uber autonomous-vehicle post.
The trade-off is dilution of exposure. A supplier with a diversified business is steadier, and also gets little from the success of any one truck program. Check each on the screener before adding it to a watchlist.
What should you watch next?
| Date | Event | What it would show |
|---|---|---|
| Late 2026 | Torc's public-road driver-out run | Whether the end-2026 target is met |
| Late 2026 to early 2027 | Aurora's 200-truck driverless fleet | Production ramp, reported as expected by the end of February |
| First quarter of 2027 | Volvo and Waabi driverless launch | Whether the purpose-built truck is ready |
| 2027 | Daimler sells Torc-powered Cascadias | First commercial sales and pricing |
| Each quarter | Parent results and order intake | How much patience owners have |
- Cost per mile: any figure that compares driverless and human-driven cost.
- Miles without incident: hundreds of thousands are encouraging, but tens of millions are what regulators and insurers want.
- Customers who reorder: repeat orders matter more than announcements.
For the cyclical backdrop, the Crash Indicator tracks freight and credit conditions at the market level, and the Sector Map shows where industrials stand against other sectors.
Sources
- Aurora: Volvo Autonomous Solutions and DSV announce autonomous freight operations in Texas
- Aurora Innovation Form 8-K: Q2 2026 shareholder letter
- FleetOwner: DHL deploys Volvo's self-driving trucks in Texas
- FreightWaves: Waabi and Volvo haul freight for Warp
- Driverless.news: Torc pins driver-out US roads on 2026
- FleetOwner: Torc advances self-driving truck technology
- Autocar Professional: Volvo Group 2025 results
- Autocar Professional: Daimler Truck 2025 results
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Torc?
Volvo Autonomous Solutions fits partner driving software, mainly Aurora's, to Volvo trucks, while Torc is Daimler Truck's subsidiary that builds its own driving software.
Are Volvo's driverless trucks already on the road?
Volvo trucks running the Aurora Driver have hauled customer freight in Texas since 2024, with commercial truckloads from May 2026. Volvo's own driverless launch is planned for early 2027.
When will Torc's driverless trucks launch?
Daimler Truck says Torc aims to run a truck with no one in the cab on US public roads before the end of 2026, with first commercial freight in 2027.
Can I invest in Volvo Autonomous Solutions or Torc directly?
No. They are units of Volvo Group and Daimler Truck. Aurora is the listed pure-play software supplier.
Which is ahead in driverless trucking?
Volvo, through Aurora, has more freight moved so far, while Torc controls more of its own technology. Both target commercial scale in 2027.