The Mercedes Benz self driving technology is soon going to revolutionise the trucking industry. The German automaker recently participated in the EU’s European Truck Platooning Challenge 2016 and sent its fleet of three trucks from Stuttgart, Germany, to Rotterdam, Holland.
Accompanying the self-driving trucks of Mercedes-Benz were trucks of Volvo and Scania. All of the trucks drove in a straight line, with the lead truck getting information about the road and traffic condition through sensors, cameras, lasers and radars and sending that information to other trucks in the platoon via vehicle-to-vehicle communication. In the event when a regular car came in between the convoy, the trucks maintained a safe distance between each other before getting aligned together.
The Mercedes Benz self driving technology allows the trucks to stay connected with each other over a distance of up to 50 feet. Following each truck and staying close in a fleet has its advantages such as improved fuel economy as well as lesser CO2 emissions.
Although the self-driving technology is not fully legal right now, these trucks were given special consideration to test the technology.