Logistics and transportation provider Ryder System is partnering with Waymo Via, the trucking and local delivery arm of self driving tech developer Waymo, to develop maintenance for Class 8 autonomous trucks. The companies aim to maximise vehicle up-time and improve reliability required to scale operations across the United States.

With a growing fleet and geographical footprint, Waymo Via needs to improve the robustness and scalability of its truck maintenance. Ryder has a network of more than 500 maintenance facilities in the US and nearly 90 years of fleet maintenance expertise. The two companies will partner on servicing and evolving maintenance practices for autonomously driven trucks across Waymo Via sites in Texas, Arizona, California, Michigan, and Ohio, as well as roadside service between hubs.

“While this partnership initially focuses on fleet maintenance, we see many opportunities to collaborate on autonomous trucking operations in order to successfully deploy these trucks at scale,” said Karen Jones, chief marketing officer and head of new product development for Ryder. “Already, we’ve collaborated on the layout and design of Waymo’s new Dallas facility to ensure it’s optimised for serviceability of trucks and for the transfer hub model they plan to pursue in the near future. Autonomous Class 8 technology is quickly taking hold, and Ryder is poised to become a leader – not only in servicing trucks but also in managing the unique logistics of autonomous operations.”

To date, Waymo has driven more than 20 million miles on public roads across 10 US states employing self driving technology, and has completed 20 billion miles in simulation.

“As we continue to scale our autonomous trucking operations, we couldn’t have found a better partner than Ryder,” said Charlie Jatt, head of commercialisation for Waymo Via trucking. “There are many synergies between our Waymo Via vision and operations and Ryder’s expertise and resources, and we look forward to unlocking best-in-class solutions within the industry and bringing autonomously driven trucks to market throughout the U.S.”