Generally speaking, car license plates are not the direction people pay attention to, because in the eyes of modern people, this is like a bonus after buying a car. However, Daimler's Mercedes-Benz's current second-hand Wolfgang Bernhard and Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval have been due to a historic license plate. And appeared on the same occasion. At the time, they teamed up with the rectangular license plate for the media to take pictures, and the license plate was the world's first license plate for self-driving trucks.
It is reported that this license plate will be a deeply modified "Freightliner Inspiration" model on Daimler's 18-wheel set card, which can automatically complete long-distance transportation work under the concept of safety, efficiency and environmental protection. .
“The market has a very clear demand for this generation of trucks, and we are the pioneers in this field,” said Burhard.
It is worth mentioning that the old German automaker Mercedes-Benz showed a heavy-duty self-driving concept truck "Future Truck" at the "IAA Commercial Vehicles expo" held in Hanover, Germany last October. 2025". The company believes that this conceptual design will eventually help reduce the number of highway accidents each year.
It should be said that Freightliner Inspiration provides a self-driving mechanism with certain conditions, that is, the built-in autopilot module will only be activated after the truck enters the highway. The system will always maintain a safe distance from the preceding vehicle after activation. Driving in the lane will not take the initiative to overtake. If the truck encounters something that it can't handle during the driving process, such as the road area snow masking the lane marking line, the system will prompt the driver to intervene by buzzing and the icon of the instrument panel. If the driver does not respond within five seconds, the car will gradually slow down and eventually stop.
In terms of hardware, Freightliner Inspiration is also different from other models that Daimler put on the market. For example, the model is equipped with a stereo camera that can detect road markings and a radar that can detect road obstacles. However, the car does not have a car-to-vehicle interaction system, the new laser sensor LIDAR, and does not automatically monitor the situation behind the vehicle, because Dalem thinks this does not make much sense.
At this stage, Freightliner Inspiration is still a test truck, but Daimler believes that the model can be safely driven on public roads, and the Nevada Vehicle Management Office agrees. However, Dalem still needs to test the truck through millions of miles of different road environments before it can be delivered to any potential customer.
It is believed that this truck will still take decades from testing to final delivery, but this is precisely the cautious approach taken by all automakers to new technologies.
In 2012, a total of 330,000 truck-related traffic accidents occurred in the United States, killing nearly 4,000 people, and most of them were drivers or passengers of family cars. About 90% of the 330,000 truck-related traffic accidents were caused by human error.
“Any technology that can make commercial vehicles safe from car accidents is of great value,” said Xavier Mosquet, head of automotive practice in North Boston, and managing director of the Detroit office.
This is why more and more card companies in the United States are beginning to equip their models with these active safety measures including lane keeping and automatic braking.
“The economic effects of this technology are self-evident, so there is absolutely no reason for these companies to devote themselves to it,” said Noël Perry, an expert in transportation and logistics.
On the other hand, the favor of autonomous driving technology is also closely related to the fact that fewer and fewer people are willing to take over the job. According to a report released by the American Transportation Research Institute in October last year, this position has even ushered in a “capacity crisis” due to the lack of experienced truck drivers. At the same time, The American Trucking Associations expects that the truck driver position will usher in a huge gap of up to 240,000 in 2022 (the current number of full-time truck drivers in the United States is about 3 million).
To some extent, this is partly because regular long-distance driving is not an easy task, and getting a commercial truck driver qualification is also a time-consuming, laborious, and costly task. In addition, Zhai Rui also believes that due to the introduction of a series of new regulations, the future gap of truck drivers will be larger and larger.
For example, the United States is currently establishing a database of internal alcohol and drug test results conducted by various companies. The establishment of this database will make it difficult for drivers who have had similar problems before to obtain other employment opportunities. The speed will be set at a terrible 69 miles; the in-vehicle automatic recording system will record the truck driver's daily driving time and will not allow overtime driving situations.
It should be said that all of these measures are beneficial to driving safety, but will also have a huge impact on the profit of truck drivers.
In addition, due to the rise of online e-commerce, the demand for trucks in the market is now growing.
However, the growing gap in truck drivers has not convinced more people to enter the industry. Therefore, the card manufacturers have to adopt another solution strategy, which is to continuously reduce the importance of human factors in long-distance driving, while improving driving safety and fuel economy through automatic driving technology.
It should be said that the safety advantage of self-driving trucks is very significant, because such trucks do not feel tired, stressed or emotionally fluctuating like a human driver. Moreover, since the truck travels on the highway most of the time, it does not have to deal with very complex urban traffic conditions.
Analysts believe that the future self-driving cars can completely "cluster" on the road, that is, through a truck lead, other vehicles only need to completely copy the action in front, and the vehicle interval between them can even Compress to 30 feet. David Carlisle, chairman of the automotive industry consultancy, said that driving a truck to lead the other seven trucks can save a lot of manpower and fuel costs (to minimize drag coefficient).
Zhai Rui believes that trucks with certain autonomous driving ability can partially alleviate the shortage of truck drivers, because the deployment of this technology can make long-distance driving easier, and reduce the entry criteria of truck drivers in the future, and may even be due to More novice drivers are on the job and lower the average wage in the industry. Of course, the ultimate goal of this technology is to completely replace the role of the human driver when driving on the highway. For example, trucks can drive automatically at high speeds and then gather at a large parking lot at the high-speed exit waiting for the driver to drive to their final destination.
According to the latest consumer survey data, American consumers are very interested in autonomous driving technology, but they have very different views on the concept of automatic driving for family cars and trucks.
"Understandably, people don't want to see the 40-ton 18-wheel truck in the cockpit driving on the road," said Rui Rui.
In the book "Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future" by Martin Ford, the author said: "Although the truck may be in the near future They have the ability to drive autonomously, but the terrible accidents that these vehicles are likely to cause will still require the human driver to stay in the cockpit for the foreseeable future."
In this regard, Sven Ennerst, head of Daimler's truck product engineering division and global product engineering procurement for the truck division, also agreed.
"We don't want to get rid of the role of the driver completely, just want to help their lives become easier and more efficient," Ennis said.
We believe that one day, all family cars and trucks will prove that autonomous driving is safer and more efficient than manual driving. Consumers will gradually accept this concept to become a reality, and regulators will even mandate that cars and trucks can only be driven automatically by computer in the future, at least on the highway. However, before all of this becomes a reality, we still need to try to restrain our excitement when we see an 18-wheel self-driving truck.

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