Daimler, the well-known German automaker, conducted the first-ever test of its ‘autonomous’ truck on Friday in Germany. Dr Wolfgang Bernhard, the member of the Daimler AG Board of Management responsible for Daimler Trucks and Buses, and Winfried Kretschmann, Minister-President of the state of Baden-Württemberg, made the journey as driver and co-driver.
The test for autonomous driving on public roads was conducted on a standard Mercedes-Benz Actros, with the “intelligent Highway Pilot system” installed into it, Daimler said in a media release.
"Today's premiere is a further important step towards the market maturity of autonomously driving trucks – and towards the safe, sustainable road freight transport of the future”, said Daimler Executive Board member Dr. Bernhard. “Safe testing in real traffic is absolutely decisive for the development of this technology to market maturity. We are now able to proceed with this.”
The version of the Highway Pilot installed allows semi-autonomous driving, meaning that while the Highway Pilot is able to steer the truck by itself on motorways, the driver retains full responsibility.
It includes front-mounted radar and a stereo camera, as well as well-proven assistance systems such as Adaptive Cruise Control +. It is also able to respond appropriately to unexpected circumstances, for example, if the weather or the road markings deteriorate excessively, the system prompts the driver to take over the control and if the driver fails to react to the audible and visual signals of the Highway Pilot, the truck is automatically brought to a safe stop.
The Highway Pilot has already absolved around 20,000 kilometres on test routes in Germany and the USA. With the Mercedes-Benz Actros equipped with the Highway Pilot, Daimler Trucks has now sent a series-production autonomous truck onto public roads for the first time.
"We are in a unique position among manufacturers in that we are able to implement leading technologies across all business units and brands. This means that we can drive innovation forward all around the globe," says Dr Bernhard. "Our claim is 'Shaping Future Transportation'. And with today's premiere we are once again impressively backing up this claim."
