Mercedes' Future Truck 2025 will drive by itself. A prototype took a 3-mile self-guided trek.
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Mercedes-Beny Future Truck 2025 should be able to drive itself
If you can afford a Mercedes truck, that is.
The German vehicle maker
sent an 18-wheeler barreling down the Autobahn recently, while the
driver surfed the Internet for food recipes on tablet computer -- at
least that's how media photos told the story.
Its test drive was brief, covering about three miles, German media reported.
The trucker's hands
didn't touch the wheel and his eyes were fixed on pork cutlets. But that
could be the way some drive in the future, perhaps in the next decade
or so.
That's the message of the
prototype "Future Truck 2025," which Mercedes says is the first
self-driven freight vehicle. It may seem illogical right now, but the
hands-off idea is aimed at eliminating human error.
Special cameras and multiple radar systems watch the road, the sides of the road, and cars and trucks behind the vehicle.
Future Truck is also
envisioned to communicate with other vehicles and connect to growing
sources of online information as Big Data balloons on the road.
Its computerized controls will also make it more fuel efficient, Mercedes boasts.
Once the truck merges
into traffic, it won't accelerate to clichéd Autobahn breakneck speeds.
The system will throttle it to a meek 50 mph, Mercedes says.
Many of the component
parts to put a vehicle like this into production are already available
in trucks on the market: Systems that help drivers keep their distance
from other drivers, active braking assistance, guidance and mapping
systems, and fine-tuned cruise control and tons of other hi-tech
tchotchke.
If a puttering slowpoke
pulls out in front of Future Truck 2025, it will slow down automatically
to keep off of its bumper, but the 18-wheeler won't pass it by itself.
That's when the driver
will have to turn off the ball game, put down the iPad or lay away the
knife and fork, then take the wheel.
But he'd be ill advised to goof off too much, because two cameras and a sensor under his seat will monitor his activities.
Mercedes says that the
trucker will still be expected to be responsible for controlling the
vehicle. But by then they won't be called that anymore.
In 2025, they'll be promoted to "transport managers."
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