Daimler says the self-driving trucks that’ll be developed as a result of its Waymo partnership will be available to customers “in the coming years”. In addition to the newly formed US partnership, both companies will also weigh expansion to other markets and brands in the future time. 

Waymo, known to be the world’s number one self-driving company, has adopted a strategy of partnering with and providing its self-driving technology to external automakers. Before now, the Alphabet-owned company had secured partnerships with automakers including Fiat Chrysler, Jaguar Land Rover, and Volvo. It’s apparent that Waymo sees offering its technology to other automakers as a major source of business.

Waymo had its start in 2009 as the self-driving car project of search giant Google but has since morphed into something much bigger. To date, the company has driven over 20 million autonomous miles on public roads across 25 US cities, a record mileage among self-driving companies. 

Although still a division of tech giant Alphabet, Waymo has tapped outside investment to fund its operations, with $3 billion raised by the company from external investors. Waymo’s outside backers include a cohort of well-known names such as Silver Lake, Mubadala Capital, Fidelity, Magna International, Andreessen Horowitz, and AutoNation.

Before this partnership, Daimler itself had already embarked on significant work in the self-driving industry and continues to do so. Particularly, Daimler Trucks, the division that’s now embarked on a partnership with Waymo, last year bought up Torc Robotics, a US-based automated driving company. The acquisition formed a solid base for Daimler’s automated driving work which the company has stood on to go even further in the industry.