Montréal, QC and Blacksburg, VA, Could 26, 2026 — Torc Robotics, a pioneer in self-driving car expertise, right this moment introduced a brand new strategic partnership with Mila – Quebec Synthetic Intelligence Institute, one of many world’s main facilities for machine studying analysis.
By way of this collaboration, Torc will set up a presence inside Mila’s ecosystem in Montreal, changing into the one autonomous trucking firm to affix the institute, and having access to top-tier tutorial expertise, together with college students, researchers, and college. The partnership additionally contains devoted analysis area on website and is designed to construct on Torc’s present AI and autonomy analysis to deepen its capabilities in bodily AI by way of direct collaboration with Mila’s school and researchers.
Mila is globally acknowledged for its contributions to machine studying and utilized AI analysis, with a big neighborhood of researchers, robust ties to main universities in Canada, and a fame as a launchpad for prime AI expertise, with alumni and associates holding management roles in well-known corporations comparable to OpenAI and Google. By embedding inside Mila’s collaborative setting, Torc will deepen its analysis capabilities in rising areas of autonomy, together with generative world fashions, multi-agent habits modeling, reinforcement studying, and basis fashions for bodily AI techniques.
“Torc is targeted on constructing secure, scalable autonomous vehicles, and advancing the subsequent technology of bodily AI is central to that mission,” mentioned Felix Heide, Head of Synthetic Intelligence at Torc. “As a long-time Mila collaborator, I can definitively say that partnering permits deeper collaboration on the intersection of analysis and real-world deployment, collaboration that helps continued progress towards commercializing autonomous trucking at scale.”
“We’re excited to welcome Torc as an trade companion, because it turns into a good stronger part of Mila’s ecosystem,” mentioned Christopher Pal, Core Educational Member at Mila, Scientific Co-Director of IVADO and Professor at Polytechnique Montréal. “This partnership brings collectively tutorial excellence and real-world deployment, creating alternatives for our college students and researchers to work on impactful challenges in bodily AI whereas advancing the state-of-the-art in autonomous techniques.”
The partnership builds on Torc’s present presence in Montreal and an affiliation with Mila that dates again to 2020, reinforcing its dedication to investing in international AI expertise and analysis partnerships. Collectively, Torc and Mila will discover new approaches to bodily AI that bridge simulation and real-world efficiency, serving to to unlock safer and extra environment friendly autonomous transportation.
“As autonomous car expertise turns into nearer to a actuality, it’s thrilling and essential to see new collaborations between tutorial labs and prime tier corporations which can be bringing the expertise to market,” mentioned Liam Paull, a Core Educational Member at Mila, a Canada CIFAR AI Chair, and an Affiliate Professor at Université de Montréal, the place he co-leads the Montréal Robotics and Embodied AI Lab (REAL).
About Torc
Torc is driving the way forward for freight with autonomous expertise. Torc has greater than 20 years of expertise in pioneering safety-critical, self-driving purposes. Torc gives an AI-forward, self-driving car software program and integration resolution and is at the moment specializing in commercializing autonomous vehicles for long-haul purposes within the U.S. Along with its Blacksburg headquarters and engineering places of work in Ann Arbor, MI, and Montreal, Torc has a fleet operations facility in Dallas-Fort Price, to assist the corporate’s productization and commercialization efforts for our clients. As an impartial subsidiary of Daimler Truck AG, a world chief and pioneer in trucking, Torc is empowering distinctive staff, delivering a customer-focused autonomous truck product, and offering the most secure, most dependable, and cost-efficient resolution to the market.
About Mila – Quebec Synthetic Intelligence Institute
Based by Professor Yoshua Bengio, Mila – Quebec Synthetic Intelligence Institute is the world’s largest tutorial AI analysis heart specialised in deep studying, dwelling to a neighborhood over 1500 members robust. Based mostly in Montreal, Mila was created out of a novel partnership between Université de Montréal and McGill College, devoted to advancing scientific breakthroughs that drive innovation and guarantee AI advantages everybody. A non-profit group, Mila is strongly supported by the Authorities of Canada by way of the Pan-Canadian AI Technique and by the Authorities of Quebec. Internationally acknowledged for its influential analysis, international innovation partnerships, and management in multilateral efforts on accountable AI, Mila continues to form the way forward for AI worldwide. For extra info, go to mila.quebec.
