Daimler presented the new Freightliner Cascadia at
CES, which later this year will become the first series production truck with
Level 2 autonomous driving features available in North America. The German company also announced
the investment of around US$ 570 million (€ 500 million) into Level 4 autonomous
driving technology in order to have highly automated trucks on the roads by the
end of the decade.
Level 4 autonomous driving systems will increase
efficiency and productivity for customers and significantly reduce costs per
mile. Daimler will skip the development of Level 3 systems, as it believes it
will not offer truck customers a substantial advantage over the current
technology.
The new Freightliner Cascadia will combine the Active
Drive Assist/Detroit Assurance 5.0 system with the Active Lane Assist, mixing
information from the onboard radar and cameras, enabling the rig to
independently brake, accelerate and steer. The new system makes partially
automated driving possible in all speed ranges.
Daimler Trucks will create 200 new jobs in the area
of autonomous driving technologies inits new Automated Truck Research &
Development Center in Portland, Oregon. The engineers in Portland will work in
close cooperation with their colleagues in Stuttgart, Germany and Bangalore,
India, thus forming a global network.
