UPS Adds Waymo as Second Partner to Test Autonomous Big Rigs
The delivery company is expanding an existing partnership with the self-driving vehicle company to test delivery routes between Dallas and Houston.
Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg
United Parcel Service Inc. is adding Waymo, the autonomous vehicle unit owned by Google parent Alphabet Inc., as a second partner to test its driverless system on large trucks the courier uses to move packages between its sorting hubs.
UPS, which tested autonomous delivery vans with Waymo in the Phoenix area beginning last year, will expand that partnership to include big rigs, Waymo said in a statement. The courier first began testing autonomous technology on 18 wheelers with TuSimple in Arizona after taking an equity stake in the startup in 2019. The Waymo tests will be done for UPS’s North American Air Freight unit for delivery routes between Dallas and Houston.