The medium-term goal is to develop a truck that optimises safety and comfort. Over the long term, highly automated driving could also have effects on driving and working times

• Automated driving systems will go into series production at Mercedes-Benz Trucks
• Automated driving for trucks results in more safety and operating options, less stress for the drivers and more efficient use of road space
• The combination of current assistance systems could very soon allow initial automated driving applications
• The industry has agreed a five-level system for classifying the degree of automation 

Automated driving not only increases efficiency and safety, it also relieves the driver's workload in monotonous or particularly stressful driving situations. This means that the driver can concentrate for longer and is safer on the road. With this objective firmly in mind, Mercedes-Benz Trucks wants to further extend its leading position in this area in the coming years.

The industry has agreed on a five-level system devised by the engineering organisation SAE International, which the VDA (German Automotive Industry Association) has adopted for Germany. This system is used to classify the different types of automated driving:

Level 1 – assisted driving

Assisted driving is currently the virtual standard in many truck cockpits. It includes the cruise control, for example, which regulates the speed and often the distance to the vehicle in front. In this case, the driver must always keep their hands on the steering wheel and their eyes on the road.

Level 2 – semi-automated driving

In certain situations, e.g. on the motorway, the truck can drive straight ahead, stay in lane and regulate the distance to the vehicle in front autonomously. The vehicle can take over completely in traffic jams. However, consistent and diligent monitoring by the driver is required.

Level 3 – highly automated driving

In this case, the truck's systems can take over the entire task of driving under certain conditions, above all on motorways. The driver is given advance warning should they need to retake control of the steering wheel. However, the driver must keep an eye on the road during the entire journey so that they can intervene in an emergency.

Level 4 – fully automated driving

The truck can perform a defined transport task autonomously – even on country roads or in urban traffic. The driver can switch their focus from the traffic conditions to other things.

Level 5 – driverless trucks

From this development level onwards, the trucks are on the road without a driver for all transport tasks and no longer need to be equipped with a steering wheel, for example.

Long-distance haulage is the innovation driver in the field of automated driving

Long-distance haulage has a special position when it comes to automated driving: almost identical speed, Europe-wide connections with large distances and the long amount of time the driver spends in the cab mean that the long-distance-haulage truck is predestined to be a major player when highly automated driving is introduced in the coming years. The process is favoured by the lack of junctions and the heavily structured driving style on motorways and major roads with clear definition of the road users. Mercedes-Benz Trucks is consistently advancing the market launch of production-ready systems for semi-automated driving.

Platooning research field: tests are promising

Highly automated driving is not developed in isolation by Mercedes-Benz Trucks. Daimler AG is conducting research in different areas of this field, and from different points of view. Numerous examples confirm the company's leading role in this area. Two years ago, Mercedes-Benz Trucks connected three automated Actros trucks as a platoon in public traffic on the A 52 motorway in Germany. Such a convoy can lower fuel consumption by up to seven percent and reduce the road space requirement on motorways by almost half - while improving traffic safety at the same time.

Even when trucks are driving in a platoon, each truck retains its autonomy on the road and can react to hazards independently. One vehicle does not follow another blindly. Instead it continues to brake or steer autonomously. To stop the sheer length of the convoy from hindering other road users, the platoon can also split up temporarily, such as when a car cuts in between the trucks. On slip roads, for example, the distance between the trucks even increases automatically to allow other vehicles to pass.

in May 2015, the state of Nevada licensed two Freightliner Inspiration Trucks for normal operation on public roads. FUSO is now successfully testing platooning in Japan. Here an electronically linked FUSO Super Great heavy-duty truck is driving in semi-automated mode as part of a platoon with other trucks on public roads in the Greater Tokyo area.

In addition to this, Daimler is continuing to extend its market-leading activities for automated trucks and buses and, to this end, has established a research and development centre for automated driving in Portland, Oregon. This innovation site will work closely together with existing development functions for automated driving in Stuttgart and India. Be it Mercedes-Benz Trucks or the other Daimler truck subsidiaries – the on-going tests already involve customers and drivers on the customer side to enable observation of the effects of automation - with respect to stress reduction, for example.

Further applications in closed-off areas

Beyond this, there are also already automated commercial vehicles on construction sites and in agriculture, e.g. suction excavators and harvesting vehicles respectively. A similar example with a Mercedes-Benz truck is the test on the site of the former airbase at Pferdsfeld. Here Mercedes-Benz Trucks demonstrated how a driverless snow-clearing vehicle can work in closed-off areas such as airports: Under the project name "Automated Airfield Ground Maintenance" (AAGM), four Mercedes-Benz Arocs vehicles performed automated airfield clearing in a remote-controlled convoy.