Tonight, Daimler-Benz and Freightliner will show us their first licensed and running prototype of a big-rig truck that can drive itself.
No details have yet been revealed about the truck, but we've seen it in action on a closed course outside Las Vegas, and we know it's called Inspiration. It follows Daimler-Benz and Freightliner's other "Super Truck" cabs that have been shown at major truck shows in the recent past.
From this photo, the Inspiration looks much like a regular truck, but it's what's underneath that counts. Today, Daimler-Benz board member and former Chrysler COO Wolfgang Bernhard told a crowd of nearly 200 journalists that it's a partly autonomous system that still requires an operator. Nevada governor Brian Sandoval was on hand to affix the first of the state's "autonomous vehicle" license plates to the truck—as opposed to the "testing" plates on some other companies' vehicles.
Why should we care about an autonomous long-haul truck? Fantasies of truck overlords aside, a truck that can essentially drive itself could also put tens of thousands of truck drivers on the job market—if the product is as good as it seems. An autonomous truck could make companies productive, running on a 24/7 schedule rather than according to human capacity for work.
Time will tell. Right now, Freightliner seems to be the only manufacturer making noise in this segment. Look for a full report from Las Vegas on the unveiled Inspiration later this week.
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