Die fahrerlosen Sattelschlepper von Daimler kommen 2027 auf die Straße | Das Unternehmen nutzt Technologien von Torc und Waymo, um seine zukünftigen Ambitionen voranzutreiben.

From the article: Daimler Truck, a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz parent company, revealed its first autonomous truck demonstrator that it said will pave the way to fully driverless freight hauling by 2027.

The demonstrator is an all-electric version of Daimler’s popular Freightliner Cascadia models. The so-called eCascadia has been fitted with a suite of high-powered, long-range sensors that enable it to “see” its surrounding environment as well as a high-powered computer that can process the sensor data and make navigation decisions.

Daimler, which is working with Waymo and its own Torc subsidiary on autonomous systems, says the goal is to launch the trucks somewhere in the Southwest US, transporting goods from hub to hub as part of a middle-mile freight hauling service in 2027.

We’re starting with “an autonomous vehicle that doesn’t sleep, doesn’t need to stop, and basically can drive continuously in the Level 4 hub-to-hub mode — that is our targeted use case,” said Joanna Butler, head of Daimler’s global autonomous technology group, in a briefing with reporters.

Daimler Truck is “fully committed” to bringing the autonomous Freightliner to series production, but only when the company deems the technology safe enough to begin testing on public roads. Butler added, “Our mantra is really it’s a marathon, and not a sprint.”

Oh good. Because driving behind or to the side of big trucks isn’t already stressful enough.

If you know there is no driver, way easier to rob, just slowdown in front of it and pop the doors, back up a pickup truck, free shit.