Retail
where benefits would be expected to be
the most substantial. Results show that
fuel savings, even in perfect platooning
conditions, are less than expected and
that those savings are further diminished
when the platoon gets disconnected
and the trucks must accelerate to
reconnect. At least for U.S. long-distance
applications, analysis currently shows
no business case for customers driving
platoons with new, highly aerodynamic
trucks. Daimler Trucks will, of course,
remain committed to all partner projects
that are still ongoing.
Level 4 automated driving improves
safety, efficiency and competitiveness
Highly automated trucks (level 4) offer
enormous advantages in many areas. In
today’s society, there is a growing desire
for safer roads and more sustainable
transport solutions and level 4 trucks
can considerably contribute to that. They
enhance safety in traffic thanks to a
redundancy of systems and a multitude
of sensors and systems that never
get tired or lose attention – because
today, a great majority of accidents are
still due to human error. Level 4 highly
automated trucks also improve efficiency
and productivity, among other things,
through higher utilization of the vehicles
– practically around the clock. They
also make it possible to travel during
light traffic times, for example at night,
and thus avoid traffic jams by intelligent
route management. This has positive
effects for truck customers and for the
entire economy: the competitiveness of
an economy is strongly correlated with
the efficiency of logistics. This aspect
becomes more and more relevant as
46 | JANUARY 2019
global road freight volume is expected
to more than double between 2015 and
2050.
200 new jobs for engineers or
robotics specialists with IT and
programming skills
Daimler Trucks is creating 200 new jobs
in the area of highly automated driving
(level 4). The newly created positions
and roles are to be filled primarily by
mechatronics engineers or robotics
specialists with IT and programming
skills. The main location is Daimler
Trucks & Buses new Automated Truck
Research & Development Center in
Portland (Oregon, U.S.). The center’s
experts are dedicated to all aspects
of developing, testing and validating
automated vehicles. In addition, the
engineers in Portland work in close
cooperation with their colleagues in the
research and development centers at
Daimler Trucks locations in Stuttgart
(Germany) and Bangalore (India), thus
forming a global network. Interested
talents can apply at https://daimler-
trucksnorthamerica.com/lead/ or directly
to [email protected].
Requirements for highly automated
driving of cars and trucks differ
considerably
A crucial success factor for the
development of a safe and reliable level
4 highly automated truck is a closely
coordinated system of engineering
and technology development. Daimler
Trucks uses the extensive knowledge
from many years of experience in
developing driver assistance systems.