Mercedes introduced the future robot truck “Future Truck 2025”

Mercedes, like many other automotive companies, is actively working to create an automated vehicle control system. The work is moving in two directions: for passenger cars (last year it was announced that the new generation of passenger cars of the S-Class will receive autopilot), and for trucks.

Earlier this year, one of the trucks with an automatic control system drove along the roads of Germany in order to verify the effectiveness of the system. Then the control system was built into a regular truck. Now the company introduced a new type of truck, with an updated system of automatic (or rather, semi-automatic) control.
')


All this is called "Future Truck 2025", and the number in the title hints at a possible date for the commercial implementation of the project. The automatic control system in this truck "sharpened" for work on the highways, when reaching a speed above 80 km / h. The robotized control system is not intended for work within the city; a person should drive a truck in a locality.



In general, positioning the autonomous control system as an "autopilot for highways" somewhat simplifies the task of developers. There are no cyclists on highways, there are no pedestrians (in any case, there should not be any), the speed is constant, the turns are at least. The “Highway Pilot” system automatically determines the lane over which the car will move, and follows a predetermined course. Camera and radar help assess the environment of the car. As you can understand, the computer has the ability to track the surrounding space at a full 360 degrees.



In addition to other improvements, “Highway Pilot” can now “communicate” with other cars - of course, subject to the availability of an appropriate transceiver. In principle, many automakers are developing a unified system for exchanging car data, so in the near future there will probably be a unified system with which cars from all manufacturers will interact. So, this system can track the behavior of the nearest cars - stop, braking, turning and accelerating. “Highway Pilot” responds accordingly to changes.



According to the plan, when reaching a speed of 80 kilometers per hour, the driver can go about his business, turning away from the wheel, and immersed in the study of the Angry Birds roadmap on the tablet.



The cabin of the new truck looks more like a smart mess, and the driver himself looks like a passenger on a business flight of any airlines.



As soon as there is a need for human participation, the system gives a visual and audible warning, and the driver is taken for the immediate implementation of duties. If the driver does not respond (maybe he fell asleep), the system beeps, if necessary, stops in automatic mode.


How can you not fall asleep?

By the way, during operation of the automatic system, the LEDs on the cab change color from white to blue.

Via wired