Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 16

ROAD
WARRIORS
Torc dispatches its Freightliner
Cascadia trucks from a former
Ford dealership in Albuquerque,
N.M., for daily testing.
Torc Robotics and Daimler Trucks team on million-mile vehicles
BY PETE BIGELOW
A
LBUQUERQUE, N.M. - For
most of its 374 miles across New
Mexico's midsection, Interstate
40 runs straight through vast
expanses of high desert.
But there's a geographic blip five miles
east of Albuquerque, where the highway
squeezes through a canyon in the Sandia
Mountain Range, climbs to an elevation
of 7,200 feet and wriggles around curves
before resuming its monotonous journey
eastward to the Texas Panhandle.
Scouting more than 3,000 miles of
roads in search of a compelling place to
test self-driving trucks, it was this anomaly
that captured the imagination of Andrew
Culhane.
Along the mountain stretch, he foresaw
a bounty of opportunities. Long off-ramps
and short acceleration lanes, and vice
versa. Going uphill, those road features
might be easier to handle. A descent while
16 shift * december 2021
Deputy Mobility Editor Pete Bigelow took a ride in one of Torc's self-driving Class 8 trucks.
hauling 80,000 pounds might be more
challenging. Light snow. Strong crosswinds.
High altitude.
" If you are driving boring roads, you are
not informing the product development, "
said Culhane, chief strategy officer at Torc
Robotics. " Here, we can get a lot of reps
faster. "

Shift Magazine - December 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Shift Magazine - December 2021

Contents
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - Cover1
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - Contents
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 3
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 4
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 5
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 6
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 7
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 8
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 9
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 10
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 11
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 12
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 13
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 14
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 15
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 16
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 17
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 18
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 19
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 20
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 21
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 22
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - Cover3
Shift Magazine - December 2021 - Cover4
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