The company will establish an additional facility at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in close proximity to its current operation in the Blacksburg Industrial Park. Virginia successfully competed with North Carolina and Texas for the project, which will create 350 new jobs.
Torc Robotics was established in Blacksburg—at the birth of the self-driving vehicle revolution—by a team of Virginia Tech students who, after winning multiple robotics challenges, decided to commercialize their technology.
The company has 15 years of experience in pioneering safety-critical, self-driving applications. This expansion supports Torc’s effort to develop self-driving trucks with Daimler Trucks—the global market-share leader.
Today, vehicles using Torc’s self-driving technology operate on multiple continents. In 2019, Torc joined the Daimler Trucks family and now employs about 175 people.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) worked with Montgomery County and Onward New River Valley to secure the project for Virginia. Governor Northam approved an $800,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Montgomery County with the project.
The Governor also approved $3.5 million in funds from the Virginia Economic Development Incentive Grant (VEDIG). VEDIG was established as a self-funded program of performance-based incentives that the Commonwealth awards to exceptional economic development projects with large numbers of employees and very high wages relative to average wages for that particular area.
Support for Torc Robotics’ job creation will be provided through the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, a workforce initiative created by VEDP in collaboration with the Virginia Community College System, with funding support from the Northam administration and the Virginia General Assembly. ■
A very active and complex mid-May weather pattern is set to produce numerous areas of severe weather, heavy rain, high winds, and anomalous temperatures through this weekend.