MAN takes “important step”
Driverless trucks are set to conquer the Autobahn soon
03/29/2022 12:33 p.m
Fewer accidents, fewer traffic jams and increased use: truck manufacturer MAN wants to make all of this possible with its new truck. And all without a driver. The autonomous vehicle should also only have advantages for the environment.
The truck manufacturer MAN, together with the supplier groups Bosch, Leoni and Knorr-Bremse, wants to have autonomously driving trucks on the motorway by the middle of the decade. Together with other partners, they want to develop a truck that can drive back and forth between logistics hubs without a driver. “With the project, a concept for the operation of automated trucks on the Autobahn that can be transferred to industrialization should be available by the middle of the decade,” they announced in Munich.
With autonomously driving trucks, there should be fewer accidents and fewer traffic jams in the future. In addition, the aim is to counteract the driver shortage, increase the flexibility of truck use and reduce diesel consumption and CO2 emissions. The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security is to ensure that the trucks are protected against cyber attacks.
The Technical Universities of Munich and Braunschweig, TÜV SÜD, the companies Fernride and BTC Embedded Systems and Autobahn GmbH are also involved in the research and development project “Automated transport between logistics centers on expressways at level 4” (Atlas-L4). It is funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics. The project is “an important step on the way to hub-to-hub automation, with which we are already looking at future series applications for Logistics 4.0,” said MAN Board Member for Development Frederik Zohm.