Scania Makes World's Largest Working Clock Featuring 14 Trucks; Volvo To Respond?

Here is the story of the world's largest clock created by truck maker Scania in a deserted airfield in the middle of nowhere and it ran for a full 24-hours. And the real twist in the entire story is that the clock was made of trucks, real ones driven by real drivers.

All of it made the perfect setting for the ultimate test of meticulous planning and precise engineering, besides, not to mention, human endurance. There were 14 of the latest 500 horsepower (373 kilowatt) S-Series Scania semi-trucks driven by 90 drivers that made the three hands of the clock and drove over 750,000 square-feet (69677 square-meter), Motor1 put it.

Of course, the entire thing wasn't just a stunt well done. Instead, it was done to showcase the new telematics systems the Scania trucks come equipped with.

"Trucks are huge, powerful machines, but they're also intricately designed, refined instruments," said Scania marketing head Staffan Arvas. "Just like watches. Each truck had to be optimized for its specific task in the clock, and real-time monitoring and analysis through our connected services made the whole operation possible."

That perhaps applied more to the trucks that made the second hand of the clock as they had to drive non-stop and at the exact same precise speed. Further, they had to maintain close coordination with the others as each drove concentric circles radiating outwards. As such, the truck at the outer edge had to drive fastest - at 33 mph - while the one in the inner most ring made it at just 8 mph.

Those making up the hour and minutes hand too were required to make short but extremely precise movements, each at the same time. Overall, there is no margin for error and each driver had to pull off what was asked of him or her in just the right measure.

Also, as Auto Evolution stated, the entire thing can also be seen as a mega marketing stunt of sorts, designed to showcase the capabilities of the machines and how well they can deliver in their designated roles. Volvo has been doing it for some time now and with Scania going one up, it will be interesting to see how Volvo responds.