Daimler’s Self-Driving Truck Isn’t Good For Nervous Highway Drivers

Daimler’s Self-Driving Truck Isn’t Good For Nervous Highway Drivers

Attention Google: Your self-driving car looks wimpy compared to this self-driving beast-turned-truck. On Thursday, German automaker Daimler demonstrated the Mercedes-Benz Future Truck 2025 (that’s when it hopes the vehicle will hit the marketplace) to spectators.

The New York Times reports that it’s “capable of responding to traffic while driving completely autonomously down a freeway” reaching speeds as high as 84km/h. To simulate real traffic conditions, the truck was surrounded by other tests cars that slowed down in front of it to prove that it’s capable of speed control. In another instance, it shifted to the far-right lane to allow an emergency vehicle to pass on its left.

But, unlike Google’s prototype, the truck doesn’t ditch the steering wheel because it’s still needed for safety manoeuvres, such as “overtaking a slower-moving vehicle in the left lane” the newspaper adds. There’s only one prototype in existence and a price hasn’t yet been announced.

Regardless, this should make a lot of tired truckers either happy — and a lot of other drivers very nervous.

[Via The New York Times]


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