Daimler Truck and Volvo Group have announced a joint venture to develop a standardised software platform and operating system for lorries.
Headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, the initiative aims to accelerate the creation and implementation of new digital features in trucks.
By pooling resources, the companies expect to streamline the development process, potentially reducing costs and setting an industry standard that other manufacturers could adopt, in turn fostering faster innovation across the trucking sector.
Another key goal of the collaboration is to improve customer experience. The standardised platform will be developed to enable the development of features to optimise routes, improve maintenance scheduling and offer other benefits to fleet operators, thereby increasing efficiency and providing a better overall experience for trucking companies.
Despite the partnership, in which the two are 50/50 partners, Daimler Truck and Volvo Group will continue to compete in all other business areas, each developing unique applications on the shared platform to offer distinct features to their customers.
The agreement is still preliminary, with a final contract expected by the end of 2024. The joint venture is anticipated to begin operations in the first quarter of 2025, pending regulatory approvals.
Martin Daum, CEO of Daimler Truck, said: “Just as important as the transformation towards CO2-neutral drive technologies is the digitalisation in the vehicle.
“Developing a common software-defined vehicle platform with Volvo Group will enable us to turn our vehicles into a programmable device. It will allow us to build differentiating digital vehicle features with significantly greater speed and efficiency for our truck and bus customers around the globe.
“Together with the Volvo Group we can develop a benchmark truck operating system and set an industry standard.”
