Meet the Mercedes-Benz Autonomous Arocs Trucks

Mercedes-Benz has always taken the lead in developing and committing to new safety and assistance systems, and the same now holds true to automated driving. After years of innovation, Mercedes-Benz has perfected the Highway Pilot and Highway Pilot Connect, two autonomous driving systems outfitted on Arocs trucks. 

Mercedes-Benz presented The Future Truck 2025 in 2014, with a focus on the Highway Pilot system. Based on the current Mercedes-Benz Actros and its numerous, improved assistance and telematic systems, the Highway Pilot System welcomed a new era for road goods transport.

The legacy continues 

Only one year later, the Freightliner Inspiration Truck continued to write history. It was the world's first automated driving truck to have operating approval for the public roads of Nevada. Only a short time later, Daimler Trucks opened up a new chapter in Europe: in autumn 2015, a standard Mercedes-Benz Actros with the Highway Pilot was given approval for public roads as a test vehicle. This vehicle is permitted to drive on all German autobahns in semi-automated mode. This means that the vehicle drives itself, but the driver must constantly monitor the system and be able to take over control at any time.

The transition to series production technology

While the Mercedes-Benz Future Truck 2025 was a concept vehicle, the transition to series production technology has proved successful in the form of the Mercedes-Benz Actros with the Highway Pilot. It demonstrates the everyday suitability of automated driving.

In 2016, three Actros trucks with the Highway Pilot Connect took to the roads: the technology allows electronic docking by vehicles on motorways and long-distance highways, also known as "platooning". During the cross-border European Truck Platooning Challenge, Daimler Trucks was able to demonstrate the advantages of electronic vehicle-to-vehicle networking on the journey to Rotterdam. In truck platooning, connectivity and automated driving increase safety for trucks driving in convoy, relieve driver workload, and improve fuel efficiency by reducing distances between vehicles.

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Mercedes-Benz continues to innovate and improve upon the Actros trucks' autonomous systems. To find out more about the technology, or to discover the semi-autonomous features on our current Mercedes-Benz vehicles, don't hesitate to contact Mercedes-Benz of Silver Spring today. 

Image Credit: Mercedes-Benz