Torc Robotics is building its autonomous trucking hub at AllianceTexas to serve as the firm’s testing grounds, customer experience center, and fleet management control. The location will serve as a hub for Torc’s plans to commercialize its technology in 2027.<\/p>\n
Torc<\/a> is a Virginia-based independent subsidiary of Daimler Truck AG, founded in 2005, focused on self-driving technology. It is led by CEO Peter Vaughan Schmidt. Alliance has long been known as a magnet for transportation and autonomous driving operations, with a multi-modal port, nearly endless warehouse square footage, and plenty of space to train and test self-driving technology.<\/p>\n Torc joins companies like Aurora, Clevon, Kodiak, and others that have worked with Alliance to launch and develop autonomous transportation products. Torc targeted DFW for its connection on I-35 to Laredo, which is the largest economic port of entry in the U.S. and represented $320 billion in total trade last year, amongst 15,000 truck crossings. The property at Alliance will be built out this year and include a 17-acre facility and 22,000 square feet of office space.<\/p>\n “We had been wanting to work with Torc for a long time, and we finally found a way to work together,” says Ian Kinne, director of logistics innovation at Hillwood. “They’re trying to hit the gas pedal and start commercializing this into a business, and we don’t want just to continue to be a place for testing. We want to be a place for innovators to commercialize their businesses.”<\/p>\n For Schmidt, Alliance met the company’s physical space and technology needs. “I was super impressed to see how many warehouses are up there, and the infrastructure is good for Class A trucking,” he says. “The quality of cable and fiber is important for us because we need to transfer a lot of data from our test hubs. It could be also a cool sandbox to try different operations models.”<\/p>\n Torc is currently in a transition phase as its operations hub moves from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Alliance. Torc had 20 to 25 trucks in operation between Oklahoma City and Phoenix before the move. Torc is scrapping its old fleet as it prepares for commercialization and will launch a new fleet with the move to DFW. Rather than developmental, retro-fitted trucks, the new vehicles will be produced in the factory equipped with all the sensors and technology to operate without a human driver. The plan is to work with the parent company, Daimler, to create a scalable product rather than a hand-built, expensive truck that isn’t ready for mass distribution.<\/p>\n “If you order one truck, you get one. If you order 100, you will get 100,” Schmidt says. “It comes out of an assembly line and is a different quality than everything you see today.”<\/p>\n Schmidt noted that 70 percent of the Torc employees in Albuquerque decided to move to Dallas with the company, demonstrating the employees’ commitment to the mission of the company and DFW’s desirability as a place to live. With operations in Virginia, Michigan, Canada, and other locations, Torc’s trucks are built in Mexico, Cleveland, and North Carolina. Though it owns and operates the vehicles today, Torc doesn’t want to own the trucks when commercialization arrives. It intends to enable the Schneiders and JBLs of the world to do their business more efficiently. With demand for trucking increasing while driver supply dwindles, the technology is essential to the health of the American economy. “We want to win together. We want to progress together. We want to elevate the industry,” Schmidt says.<\/p>\n The move to Texas is all about commercialization. With friendly regulation, miles of highway, and a suitable and experienced partner in Alliance, Torc is poised for a commercial autonomous trucking explosion in 2027. Schmidt sees Torc’s differentiators in its scalability, return on investment, and pricing from the company’s experience in the industry. “We come from the industry and understand trucking well, and we have by far the best price points in terms of hardware and operations,” he says. “In the end, that’s what matters for a fleet. What is the cost of the truck that is autonomous ready? What’s the cost of their software subscription, and what are the other costs to operate it? We have a phenomenal product designed for scalability that will provide clients a payback of less than a year, which is unique.”<\/p>\n Read More<\/a><\/p>“}]}},{“one”:{“id”:12643,”author”:”Seth Bodine”,”source”:”Dallas Business Journal”,”date”:”2025-03-18″,”image”:{“thumbnail”:”b5c4fe27-907d-4692-8a11-495f29826ff6.png”,”original”:”ce3965d1-99bc-41c9-b83c-9aa100836ad6.png”,”optimized”:”a0aa05f6-4f56-4ec5-85e8-80eeed6142bb.png”},”featured”:false,”title”:”Nasdaq to put regional HQ in Dallas”},”two”:{“id”:12643,”author”:”Seth Bodine”,”source”:”Dallas Business Journal”,”date”:”2025-03-18″,”image”:{“thumbnail”:”b5c4fe27-907d-4692-8a11-495f29826ff6.png”,”original”:”ce3965d1-99bc-41c9-b83c-9aa100836ad6.png”,”optimized”:”a0aa05f6-4f56-4ec5-85e8-80eeed6142bb.png”},”details”:[{“language”:”English – US”,”languageCode”:”en-US”,”title”:”Nasdaq to put regional HQ in Dallas”,”article”:” Stock exchange operator Nasdaq Inc. is locating a new regional headquarters in the Dallas area, another sign of how the traditional heavyweights of finance are racing to ramp up in North Texas.<\/p>\n At a press conference with Gov. Greg Abbott and Hillwood Chairman Ross Perot Jr., Nasdaq announced March 18 that it will put its second U.S. headquarters in the Dallas area. Nasdaq states it generates more than $750 million in revenue in Texas and the southeast region of the U.S. and 800 of the exchange’s 2,000 companies are based in Texas. The news comes as the New York Stock Exchange and Texas Stock Exchange prepare to set up shop in Dallas.<\/p>\n \”The space will be a hub to Nasdaq clients and to the wider community, and will serve as a community space to celebrate the leaders, the entrepreneurs and innovators that call Texas home,\” Nasdaq chair and CEO Adena Friedman said in during the event, held at the Crescent in Uptown Dallas.<\/p>\n It’s unclear where in the Dallas area the regional headquarters will be located. Nasdaq, which is based in New York, announced last September it would place one of its three regional listing divisions in Irving, in an existing office at 503 Riverside Dr.<\/p>\n Perot, who was involved in the deal to secure the regional headquarters and was coincidentally honored with Nasdaq’s lifetime achievement award at this week’s event, said the location is still undetermined. Hillwood last year bought multiple office buildings in Irving from UBS. Hillwood is also partially responsible for developing the new Goldman Sachs campus in Dallas, along with Hunt Realty Investments.<\/p>\n \”Everybody wants to be close to Goldman,\” Perot said in an interview with Dallas Business Journal. \”In financial services, Goldman is a major magnet. And a lot of the clients I call up call up now say, ‘Look, we just want to be over near Goldman.’\”<\/p>\n Perot said he’s been working with Abbott for four or five years on bringing more Nasdaq presence to Texas.<\/p>\n \”These things take awhile. Goldman took four or five years,\” he said. \”With all of them, you work with a client, you bring them in, you stay on them, they watch the state, they make a decision. As I mentioned there, hopefully there are a lot more coming.\”<\/p>\n Perot was honored by Nasdaq with a lifetime achievement award on the day of the new regional headquarters announcement. Perot heads Hillwood, which has been an economic powerhouse for the region with the 27,000-acre AllianceTexas hub north of Fort Worth and landing several corporate headquarters such as Charles Schwab and Fidelity Investments. Since 1990, it’s estimated that AllianceTexas has generated $130 billion in economic impact<\/a>. Hillwood also developed Victory Park in Dallas and its residential division is responsible for multiple master-planed communities across the Metroplex.<\/p>\n Abbott called Perot the \”Derek Harper of economic development,\” referring to a former player with the Dallas Mavericks who is the top all-time assist leader for the team with 5,111, according to the NBA.<\/p>\n Despite concerns about the impact of tariffs on raising overall prices for development, Perot said the pipeline is still strong.<\/p>\n \”We’ve got a lot of really great space, built pre-tariff,\” he said. \”I think it’s going to help fill up a lot of our space. That’s for us short term, then long term, buildings are going to cost more and it’ll be less competitive, but hopefully whatever fights we’re trying to have will get resolved.\”<\/p>\n