



Want to see what a long-haul truck will look like ten years from now?

Well, Mercedes-Benz wants to show it to you.





Called the Future Truck 2025, it looks as slick as a truck could be, with smooth surfaces and LED lighting that disappears when parked, illuminates white under way and changes to blue when operating in autonomous mode. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what the FT2025 is all about: autonomous driving.

Sit back, relax and keep on truckin’? It could be possible soon thanks to technology being developed by Mercedes-Benz. The system uses four radar sensors and a 3D camera to assess the area within 60 m (200 ft) of the lorry, with wireless connections to other vehicles and the road infrastructure providing additional information. This, along with traffic and topographic data, allow the vehicle to operate autonomously when the driver passes over control to the system. This allows the driver to relax or work on other tasks while the system provides updates on a touchscreen tablet.

That’s not to say there won’t be anything to do, the driver will still be responsible for navigating off-highway roads and overtaking, but Mercedes-Benz thinks the technology and regulatory framework will allow the Future Truck 2025 to be on the road by, well, 2025.

And it’s not the only company working on this sort of thing. Volvo recently demonstrated its “Road Train” technology, where a lead vehicle is able to wirelessly guide a platoon of cars and trucks behind it, following in close formation to reduce aerodynamic drag and better manage the flow of traffic.

The Mercedes-Benz prototype demonstrated the exciting capabilities of the Future Truck 2025 at speeds of up to 80 km/h in realistic traffic situations on a section of the A14 motorway in Magdeburg, Germany.

Enjoy the ride.