Daimler Tests a Self-Driving Truck On the Autobahn

Engadget reports that Daimler has tested an autonomous truck in one environment guaranteed to put stress on any car: the German Autobahn. While the Mercedes Actros truck was guided with a mix of "radar, a stereo camera array and off-the-shelf systems like adaptive cruise control," there was a human crew on hand, too, just in case. From the article: This doesn't mean you'll see fleets of robotic trucks in the near future. Daimler had to get permission for this run, and the law (whether European or otherwise) still isn't equipped to permit regular autonomous driving of any sort, let alone for giant cargo haulers. Still, this could make a better case for approving some form of self-driving transportation.

Comments

Guaranteed to put stress on any car? As if.

[Anonymous Coward]

People on the autobahn are generally courteous, signal when changing lanes and so on. I guess you'd have to be at such speeds, but it's also part of the German national character. Furthermore, it's a highway so everyone is driving fast and the velocity differences, which cause most of the danger, are actually rather low most of the time. I think the highway may possibly be the safest and easiest environment for automated driving.

Re:Guaranteed to put stress on any car? As if.

[_merlin]

Yeah, I have to agree. Autobahn has very strict rules about not passing someone to their right, and people actually follow them. People are also generally courteous about getting up to speed before entering, leaving gaps for people to enter, getting out of the left lane for people wanting to pass, indicating for lane changes and exits, etc. Automating driving on an Australian freeway would be far more challenging, and even that would be easy compared to an intercity road in Vietnam.

Re:About damn time

[Anonymous Coward]

The article's a bit short on details, but this is where I expect autonomous driving to take off first--long-haul trucking

Our trains aren't autonomous yet, which seems like a much easier problem to solve.

"Our" trains for the most part are, the engineer just sits there to make people feel good.

Which country are you talking about?

Re:Not a substitute

[jrumney]

Actually a lot of larger trucks do just go between hubs, with smaller delivery trucks used for the "last few (tens in most countries, maybe hundreds in sparsely populated parts of the US) miles".

clueless author

[Tom]

one environment guaranteed to put stress on any car: the German Autobahn

Uh, no?

Have you ever actually driven on the German Autobahn? It is probably the most simple environment for an autonomous car, because absolutely everything is very clearly defined and built to standards. You have very reliable road quality, width, signaling. No traffic lights, roundabouts or intersections. Very few traffic rules (basically speed limit and whether or not trucks are allowed to overtake on this stretch). Construction sites are about the only tricky spots you will ever encounter. Even incoming and exiting traffic is very simple to handle, because there is one and only one way in which it will ever happen.

If I were to write autonomous driving software, I would start with the Autobahn, and then go to more complicated road systems later.

For trucks, even speed is trivial. The general high speed of trucks is 80 km/h, so if you are a truck you stay on the right lane and stick to that speed and that's it.

Left-lane driving on the Autobahn is more interesting, especially for foreigners (you think you're going crazy fast in your rental car at 190 km/h (about 120 mph), and there's this BMW behind you signaling to get your slow ass out of the way). But we're talking about trucks here.

Re:About damn time

[Tom]

According to WP, there are a number of fully autonomous metro lines in the world, and a longer list where there's a human basically just to intervene in case of emergencies.