Benzinga | Nov 17, 2021 01:58PM EST

Waymo Extends Autonomous Truck Partnership With UPS

* Alphabet Inc's (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Waymo expanded partnership with United Parcel Service Inc (NYSE:UPS) to move freight using autonomous trucks between two of the parcel delivery company's Texas facilities during the holiday season.

* "Multiple trucks" from its test fleet of Peterbilts equipped with its fifth-generation Driver will be delivering goods for UPS's North American Air Freight (NAAF) unit between facilities in Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, Texas.

* The trucks will have two autonomous specialists onboard, one driver with a commercial driver's license and one software technician who will monitor Driver's operations while in autonomous mode.

* The trucks will be self-driving only on highways and will switch back to manual mode for surface street portions, TechCrunch reports.

* Waymo Via's delivery operation began its partnership with UPS in early 2020 when it shuttled packages between the Metro Phoenix area and its Tempe hub in Arizona using an autonomous minivan, Reuters reports.

* Price Action: UPS shares traded lower by 1.72% at $208.23 on the last check Wednesday.