America is experiencing a truck driver shortage, but help is on the way as Daimler Truck aims to offer an autonomous semi by 2027. That would be a game changing development as the Level 4 vehicle wouldn’t need a human driver when operating under certain conditions. While that’s still a ways off, the company is giving us a glimpse into the future with an autonomous Freightliner eCascadia technology demonstrator. As the name suggests, the prototype is based on the electric eCascadia and comes equipped with autonomous driving technology from Torc Robotics, which is “Daimler Truck’s independent subsidiary for autonomous virtual driver technology.”
The company was coy on specifics, but said
the technology demonstrator was designed to have “many commonalities” with the
production eCascadia. That particular model is a Class 8 truck, which offers
291 and 438 kWh battery packs. They enable the semi to travel between 249 and 370 km on a single charge. While the company didn’t say
which powertrain the prototype has, it features a sensor bar with cameras as
well as lidar and radar sensors. The bar is mounted high-up on the vehicle and
this helps to improve aerodynamic performance, protect the sensors, and help
prevent “soiling.”
Additional sensors are mounted further
below and Daimler said the demonstrator has four extra 12-volt batteries to
“ensure uninterrupted operation” as well as increased safety. The model has
also been outfitted with a compute stack, which is located between the seats
and uses a prototype air-cooling concept.
The model is envisioned to be used on
short, repeatable routes that have charging infrastructure. Daimler added that
while this is “still a research and advanced engineering project, the
autonomous vehicle has the potential to evolve into a modular, scalable
platform that is propulsion agnostic for flexible use in different trucking
applications.”
