Mercedes to launch autonomous trucks
Posted by Mansoor A. Bukhari on Jul 8, 2014
Mercedes-Benz has joined the bandwagon of driverless cars and notched it up by introducing self-driving trucks. They have announced a new system called Highway Pilot which enables the driver to basically switch on the auto-pilot system found in airplanes and ride comfortably as a passenger.
How is it achieved? Well, the truck uses a combination of sensors to communicate information. It has Wi-Fi to collect information from other vehicles and radars on all 4 sides to detect objects. The truck also has a front camera mounted below the windshield.
The project is called Future Truck 2025. Why 2025? Because the company predicts that’s how long it will take to normalize self-driving vehicles worldwide as regulations take time to implement. Looking at regulation, one city in England has agreed on deploying 100 autonomous vehicles for public use by next year. Also, DMV in California has allowed testing of self-driving vehicles from September. So by the looks of it, Mercedes’ dream trucks can be a reality sooner than expected.
You can check out the video premiere below: