Torc Robotics
Daimler Truck's 91%-owned self-driving truck software unit, aiming to pull the driver from US public roads by the end of 2026. Most engineering roles can be remote in the US.
Daimler Truck Annual Report 2025; FreightWaves, Sep 30, 2026; Greenhouse board- Owner
- 91.05% Daimler Truck at Dec 31, 2025. Founders hold the rest, per Bloomberg as cited by Just Auto.
- Backing
- €324M in 2025 Daimler's operating costs for autonomous driving, up from €244M in 2024.
- Timeline
- Freight in 2027 no driver on public roads targeted by end of 2026, then scale from 2028.
- Watch
- Empty cab not yet shown driverless runs so far were on a closed Texas track; the public road target is weeks away.
- AI
- Self-play learning research with Mila trains a camera driving policy in simulation without human driving data.
- Liquidity
- None found no listing, tender offer or staff share sale found. Torc is a subsidiary, not a startup.
- Hiring
- 35 → 32 remote listings since Oct 10.
Software that drives Daimler's trucks, sold through Daimler.
Torc writes the virtual driver; Daimler Truck North America builds the Freightliner Cascadia with backup steering and brakes. Daimler plans to sell autonomous trucking through its dealer network, says it could cut customers' total cost of ownership by 15 to 20%, and expects recurring revenue. The first product is hub-to-hub long-haul freight in the US. No revenue has been disclosed.
Daimler Truck Annual Report 2025, p. 31; FreightWaves, Sep 2026- 1Owned by the truck makerFreightliner and Western Star held 37.8% of the North American Class 8 market through June 2026. Sensors and computer are planned to be fitted at the factory.FreightWaves, Sep 30, 2026
- 2Two decades of autonomy workFounded in 2005 in Blacksburg, Virginia. Daimler agreed to buy a majority in 2019, when Torc had about 100 staff and had worked with Caterpillar and Transdev.Daimler Trucks, Mar 29, 2019
- 3A large data and simulation loopEach truck mission creates about 9 TB of data an hour, and Torc plans storage for 100+ PB. Auto-labeling and simulation feed model training.Torc, Sep 30, 2026
Every round, and what its terms give away.
Torc Robotics is private, so there is no share price. What its investors paid, and on what terms, is the closest thing to one.
- 750
- employees, as reported
No revenue yet. Daimler booked €324M of autonomous driving operating costs in 2025 (2024: €244M).
Daimler Truck Annual Report 2025; Transport Topics, Dec 2024 (more than 750 staff)- Sep 8Outside minority investor sought (reported)Led by Bank of America hired to find investors (reported)Bloomberg, citing unnamed people: talks preliminary, yearly spend about €600M. No deal announced since.Just Auto citing Bloomberg, Sep 8, 2025
- Mar 29Majority stake bought by Daimler TrucksLed by Daimler Trucks and Buses Holding Inc.Price not disclosed. Torc kept its name, team and Blacksburg base.Daimler Trucks, Mar 29, 2019
- Down round or flat round?Not applicable in the usual sense: Torc raises no priced rounds. Daimler funds it and has never published a value for Torc.Daimler Truck Annual Report 2025Open
- Time since the last cash inDaimler injected capital in the first half of 2026. Its autonomous driving costs were €147M in the first half, down from €164M a year earlier.Daimler Truck Interim Report Q2 2026Clear
- Who puts in the moneyOnly the parent. Bloomberg reported in Sep 2025 that Daimler sought an outside minority investor; none has been announced.Just Auto citing Bloomberg, Sep 8, 2025; Q2 2026 reportFlag
- Structured or unusual termsNot disclosed. The 2026 injection diluted minority holders who did not take part; no other terms are public.Daimler Truck Interim Report Q2 2026Open
- Tender offers or secondary sales for staffNone found. Whether staff hold Torc equity or get cash plans is not published. Checked Torc news and Daimler reports.Torc news, checked Nov 3, 2026Open
- Layoffs in the last 12 monthsNone found since Nov 2025. Earlier, Torc wound down its Albuquerque and Stuttgart sites in the first half of 2025; Stuttgart staff had to reapply for jobs.Transport Topics, Dec 4, 2024; searched Nov 3, 2026Clear
Clear: checked, nothing found. Flag: found, with the source. Open: could not be checked.
What the record says, and what we think it means.
The fact is the source's. The read, in italics, is ours.
- 01Watch
The empty-cab test is due now.
FreightWaves, Sep 30, 2026; Daimler Truck, Oct 31, 2024Torc aims to run with no one in the cab on public roads before the end of 2026. Its driverless runs so far were on a closed Texas track at up to 65 mph in 2024.
If the date slips, the 2027 freight launch likely slips too. Watch for an announcement in the next two months.
- 02Watch
A rival got there first.
Dallas Innovates, May 1, 2025Aurora began fully driverless paid deliveries between Dallas and Houston in spring 2025, for Uber Freight and Hirschbach.
Torc is about two years behind on driverless freight, but it has a truck maker behind it, which Aurora does not own.
- 03Good
Daimler sees less risk than a year ago.
Daimler Truck Annual Report 2025, notesTorc's €113M of goodwill passed Daimler's Dec 2025 test with no write-down, and Daimler cut the risk rate it applies to 19.8% after tax from 24.6%.
Daimler's own plan treats Torc as less speculative than a year ago, though still far riskier than its truck units.
- 04Neutral
Daimler put in more money in 2026.
Daimler Truck Interim Report Q2 2026A capital injection in the first half of 2026 diluted the minority holders, who did not join. Daimler owned 91.05% before it.
The founders' slice is shrinking. For staff, this means value sits almost entirely with Daimler.
- 05Neutral
A new CFO from Alphabet's X.
Torc, May 12, 2026Tobias Wessels became CFO in May 2026. He was CFO of X, where Waymo began, and later at Helm.ai and Udelv.
Fits a move from research spending to selling a product.
- 06Neutral
The board is Daimler.
Torc board page, checked Nov 3, 2026Directors are Daimler Truck CEO Karin Radstrom, CFO Eva Scherer, DTNA CEO John O'Leary and Torc CEO Peter Vaughan Schmidt. No independent director is listed.
Torc's path follows the parent's budget.
- 07Watch
Remote for engineers, not for operations.
Torc Greenhouse board, checked Nov 3, 202632 of 49 open roles list a remote option, mostly engineering and ML. Truck, fleet and logistics roles are on site in Fort Worth; some office roles need 3 days in.
Many remote roles also list an office; check each posting.
- 08Watch
Annotator jobs are six-month contracts.
Torc Greenhouse board, checked Nov 3, 2026The Data Annotator I role (posted in English and French) is a six-month fixed-term job, remote for residents of Alberta, BC, Ontario or Quebec, with posted pay of CAD 40,100 to 48,100.
Extension or a permanent job is possible but not guaranteed, per the posting.
Data is paid 10% over market. Engineering, 6% under.
We save every company's roles, pay by team and level, AI share and churn every day, so each month this page can say more. Sparklines use their own scale.
Can AI agents do business with Torc Robotics?
We checked the agent payment programs, developer docs and site rules an AI assistant would meet.
Builds an agent, sells none to agents. Its product is a robot driver; buyers go through Daimler, and the site has no agent tools.
Still Remote read- YesIts own AI agentThe product is a Level 4 virtual driver: perception, planning and driving software for heavy trucks.FreightWaves, Sep 30, 2026
- Not foundAn MCP server or public APINo API, developer docs or MCP server found on torc.ai; /.well-known/mcp.json returns 404.torc.ai, checked Nov 3, 2026
- Not found
- YesLets AI crawlers read its siterobots.txt names no AI bots and blocks only /wp-admin/, so GPTBot and ClaudeBot can read the site.checked Nov 3, 2026
- Not foundCan a buyer's agent order itNo self-serve buying. Daimler plans to sell autonomous trucking through its dealer network.Daimler Truck Annual Report 2025, p. 31
Where Torc Robotics puts AI to work.
- 1AI labels the data, people check itVision-language models tag scenes like rain, police officers and cones, and auto-labeling models tag raw data. A manual team checks the results, which is the work the fixed-term annotators do.Torc, Sep 30, 2026; Greenhouse posting
- 2Learning to drive in simulationTorc's research with Mila and NYU trains a driving policy by self-play over 25 billion simulated steps. Torc says the teacher model is the same kind it uses in production work.Torc, Oct 16, 2026
As many listings as on Sep 9, led by data.
The signals, and which way they push.
- TailwindA built-in sales channel.
Daimler says it has sold more than 1 million Cascadias in the US since 2007 and plans factory-fit autonomy hardware, plus a new US plant producing from 2029.
- TailwindProduction sensors are arriving.
Aeva delivered C-sample long-range lidar units for the production truck in May 2026; Innoviz supplies short-range lidar.
- HeadwindRivals already haul freight driverless.
Aurora has run paid driverless loads in Texas since spring 2025.
- HeadwindThe parent names big costs and risks.
Daimler's risk report says reliable sensors, computing and secure software need substantial investment, plus heavy testing and safety work.
Where Torc Robotics ends up, if we had to bet.
Our calls, not facts. Each one is tied to something that already happened, so you can judge the reasoning.
- 1
Torc is listed on its own exchange by 2031.
Long shot 16%IPODaimler owns about 91% and has only sought a minority partner. Its plan is to sell autonomy as part of its own trucks, not as a separate stock.
Just Auto citing Bloomberg, Sep 2025; Daimler Annual Report 2025 - 2
An outside investor buys a minority stake in Torc by 2028.
Coin flip 50%M&ABloomberg reported a search in 2025 with Bank of America. Nothing was announced, and Daimler kept funding it alone in 2026.
Just Auto citing Bloomberg, Sep 2025; Q2 2026 report - 3
Torc-driven Freightliners haul paying freight with no driver on Texas highways by 2028.
Likely 72%RevenueDaimler set 2027 for first freight and 2028 for scale, and has a Dallas-Fort Worth hub and I-35 lane ready. A slip of a year or so would still meet this call.
FreightWaves, Sep 30, 2026 - 4
Learned, end-to-end planning drives more of Torc's trucks than hand-written rules by 2031.
Likely 72%AITorc is hiring for reinforcement learning and VLM roles and publishes self-play research. It says production work already uses a self-play teacher model.
Torc, Oct 16, 2026; Greenhouse board - 5
Torc and Daimler run one of the two largest US driverless truck fleets in 2031.
Coin flip 50%CompetitionAurora started about two years earlier. Daimler's 37.8% Class 8 share gives Torc a path to volume that software-only rivals lack.
FreightWaves, Sep 30, 2026; Dallas Innovates, May 2025
Read by the Still Remote research agent on November 3, 2026 from the sources linked on this page. Facts and scenarios only, not investment advice.