Today’s commercial vehicles are more capable than ever. Advanced powertrains, premium driver environments, integrated safety systems — these are remarkable achievements. But across the industry, they’re also becoming table stakes. The features that once separated one brand from another are converging.
So, the question fleet leaders should be asking isn’t just which truck should I buy? It’s what comes with it? What services, what intelligence, what ecosystem wraps around that vehicle to keep it productive throughout its entire lifecycle? Because that’s where the real value lives now — beyond the truck itself.
From Uptime to Insight
At Volvo Group North America, we’ve spent more than a decade building an integrated services ecosystem around our trucks — predictive diagnostics, 24/7 support and a dealer network with more than $1 billion in service investments. That ecosystem delivers measurable results for customers every day. But it also taught us something broader: the most valuable innovations in this industry increasingly happen after the truck leaves the factory.
Consider over-the-air software updates. Our AutoSend platform — the first of its kind in commercial trucking — automatically keeps trucks optimized without a dealer visit. In 2025 alone, it completed roughly 150,000 updates and helped customers avoid an estimated 115,000 days of downtime. That’s not a feature. That’s a fundamentally different relationship between a truck and the technology that supports it — one in which the vehicle improves continuously throughout its lifecycle rather than depreciating from day one.
Building the Foundation for What’s Next
As powerful as these tools are, they represent an early chapter in a much larger transformation. Commercial vehicles are rapidly shifting from hardware-led machines to software-defined platforms. The trucks of the near future will rely on centralized, high-powered computing systems rather than dozens of single-purpose electronic control units — and that architectural shift will fundamentally change how vehicles are designed, updated and optimized over time.
This is why Volvo Group and Daimler Truck launched Coretura in June 2025 — a joint venture dedicated to building a standardized, open software-defined vehicle platform and commercial vehicle operating system. Coretura isn’t about creating a shared truck. Volvo Group and Daimler Truck remain competitors and will continue to differentiate their products and digital solutions. What Coretura provides is the non-differentiating core: the foundational software architecture that decouples hardware and software development cycles, enabling over-the-air application updates, enhanced connectivity and faster innovation across the industry.
The significance of this investment goes beyond any single company. When two of the world’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturers — whose North American brands together account for nearly 58% of Class 8 retail sales — commit to building a shared digital foundation, it signals that this transformation is an industry imperative, not a single-company bet. Coretura is targeting its first products in vehicles by the end of the decade, and the platform is open to future partners and suppliers who share the vision.
What This Means for Fleets
For fleet operators, the implication is straightforward: the truck you buy today is only part of the value proposition. The connected services, predictive analytics, safety systems and digital tools that surround it are becoming core drivers of performance and customer value. Fleets that start evaluating these capabilities now — not just horsepower and payload — will be better positioned as the industry’s digital architecture matures.
At Volvo Group North America, our approach has always been rooted in understanding the real jobs our customers need to accomplish. When a construction fleet tells us they need fewer disruptions on the jobsite, we respond with integrated safety systems, predictive maintenance and real-time operational intelligence. When a long-haul operator says downtime costs them thousands per day, we respond with AutoSend, GuardDog Connect predictive uptime monitoring, and a dealer service network built to get them back on the road.
The commercial transportation industry is at a major inflection point. The brands that will lead aren’t just building better trucks — they’re building the ecosystems that make those trucks smarter, safer and more productive over time. That’s the future we’re investing in, and it’s what fleets are really buying when they choose a partner.
Stephen Roy will deliver the keynote Driving Commercial Vehicle Innovation on Tuesday, May 5, at ACT Expo 2026 in Las Vegas, where he’ll share how connected systems, software-defined platforms and advanced analytics are reshaping fleet operations. Jonathan Randall, President, Mack Trucks North America, will join fellow OEM leaders on the CEO Panel — Navigating Complexity and Change Through Innovation — on Monday, May 4. And Nicole Portello, SVP and Chief Digital Officer, Volvo Trucks North America and Mack Trucks, will participate in the panel AI in Fleet Operations: From Concept to Impact on Wednesday, May 6.
