Stuttgart / Blacksburg – Effective May 1, 2022 Axel Gern, a long-time Daimler manager and leader in truck automation, takes over responsibility at Torc Robotics heading the recently founded Torc Europe GmbH. Gern has been named senior vice president of engineering and managing director for Torc Europe at the Technology and Software Development Center in Stuttgart, Germany.

“We are thrilled to have Axel join our team,” said Michael Fleming, Torc founder and CEO. “We have worked closely with him since before Daimler Truck invested in Torc, and we appreciate his clear vision and strong leadership. He knows the roadmap and the tech, and has earned great respect from Torc’rs.”

Gern joins the Torc team after serving as the the chief technology officer for the Daimler Truck Autonomous Technology Group, where he had a leading role in the technological strategy for the company’s SAE-Level-4 autonomous truck development. Initially, Gern was on the Daimler Truck team that investigated autonomous driving partnerships that led to the successful 2019 acquisition of a majority stake in Torc. “I believe Torc is a major force in the safe commercialization of autonomous trucks, and I am very happy to join the team,” said Gern. “We have very strong engineers and technical resources in Germany, and I look forward to supporting the deployment of Level 4 autonomous trucks in the United States.”

After serving as vice president of Autonomous Driving North America in Sunnyvale, California, for Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, Gern joined Daimler Truck in 2018 as the technical project lead, Autonomous Trucks. Earlier he joined what was then Daimler AG in 1998 as a research and development engineer and earned successively higher-level positions in the organization. Gern studied computer science at the University of Stuttgart, focusing on software engineering, distributed artificial intelligence, and robotics, and earned his Ph.D. in 2005.

Torc Europe GmbH is an independent entity and a 100% subsidiary of Torc, Inc. Its office is located in Stuttgart’s district Untertuerkheim. Torc Europe is now hiring software engineers, data scientists, and architects in the areas of systems, safety, validation, and product development. Torc and Daimler Truck are pursuing a common goal of developing and bringing autonomous trucks for long-haul trucking to U.S. roads within the decade.