PACCAR Connect brings factory app platform to Kenworth, Peterbilt in 2027

PACCAR will install a factory touchscreen and fleet app platform, PACCAR Connect, in Kenworth and Peterbilt Class 8 trucks starting in early 2027, the company announced Monday at the American Trucking Associations' Management Conference & Exhibition in Charlotte, North Carolina. The system ships under factory warranty and, PACCAR says, can eliminate multiple aftermarket devices in the cab.

The platform connects Kenworth and Peterbilt customers to the Virtual Vehicle app marketplace run by Platform Science, a connected-truck company PACCAR backed with a minority equity investment in March 2023. Connected services were already on the spending plan: Chief Financial Officer Brice Poplawski named them among PACCAR's investment areas in July, alongside new powertrains and manufacturing expansion.

"PACCAR Connect advances our connected vehicle strategy," John Rich, PACCAR's chief technology officer, said in the release.

PACCAR is not the first truckmaker onto Platform Science's system. Virtual Vehicle was developed with Daimler Truck North America, Navistar, PACCAR and other manufacturers, and Daimler became the first to integrate factory-installed telematics onto it in May 2020.

What changes for fleets and drivers?

Kenworth and Peterbilt have until now sold remote diagnostics as separate subscriptions. As of 2022, fleets managed Kenworth's TruckTech+ and Peterbilt's SmartLINQ through the PACCAR Solutions portal, Truck Parts & Service reported. The new PACCAR Connect Portal consolidates vehicle health, remote diagnostics, mileage, location, warranty status and idle time into one back-office tool. PACCAR did not say whether it replaces TruckTech+ or SmartLINQ.

Fleets activate third-party apps through the portal, which PACCAR said lets them bring their own workflows and technology directly into the truck.

Drivers get a high-definition display. Peterbilt's version is a 13-inch portrait screen, standard on Models 579, 589 and 567 with Class 8 interiors from the first quarter of 2027, Truck News reported. Kenworth uses a 15-inch center display. A voice assistant handles more than 250 commands in English, Spanish and French, according to Transport Topics.

Hardware details are concrete:

• The display accepts up to eight camera inputs and switches views automatically when the truck reverses or a turn signal activates.
• It pairs two phones over Bluetooth at once and supports Apple CarPlay.
• Preloaded PACCAR apps — digital operator's manual, driver tutorials, vehicle health information, dealer locator — carry no extra subscription charge, Truck News reported.

How old is this plan?

Older than Monday's launch suggests. When PACCAR and Platform Science announced their collaboration in January 2023, they said Virtual Vehicle would reach Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks beginning in 2024. The new release does not say how much of that deployment actually reached trucks before now.

Europe is ahead. DAF, PACCAR's European brand, has supplied PACCAR Connect as standard on every new XB, XD, XF, XG and XG+ since April 2024, with 10 years of service included, according to DAF. That version pairs an online fleet portal with an optional detachable tablet.

What we still don't know

The North American release omits pricing for the display, the portal and third-party marketplace apps. It does not list which aftermarket devices fleets could pull out of the cab. It also does not name Platform Science, though Transport Topics reported the trucks' app store links to Platform Science's marketplace. Per Truck News, the display will not be offered as a retrofit for trucks already in service.

Rich said the platform would let PACCAR "continuously expand capabilities, integrate new technologies and enhance the driver experience."

For fleets, the commercial equation is simple but incomplete: a factory-warranted display and single diagnostics portal could cut aftermarket spend, yet with no pricing and no replacement-device list, buyers spec'ing 2027 trucks cannot yet run the numbers. Pricing, app availability and any TruckTech+ or SmartLINQ transition plan will decide how fast adoption moves once the first screens roll off the line.