Here’s What Students in Dispatch Schools Should Know about the Mercedes-Benz Future Truck 2025
Self-driving cars aren’t a novel idea—in fact, companies have been trying to develop them as far back as the 1920s—but one of the world’s most recognizable car companies is trying to take the concept to new heights. Mercedes-Benz’s Future Truck 2025 was initially unveiled back in 2014; the first automated truck in history. While little has been made public about its development since then, a statement from Mercedes claimed that it would be able to drive on Europe’s highways “in 10 years,” implying a possible 2024 launch. Not only could it push the automotive industry forward and help improve the efficiency of transporting goods, but it could change in the dynamic of the trucking world itself. Here are a few things dispatch school students might find interesting about this new truck.
Everything About the Truck Is Straight Out of the Future
While the front of the vehicle looks incredibly pristine, the truck’s basic operating functions are even more intriguing. Replacing traditional headlights will be a panel of LED lighting, which will show the driver when the truck is about to turn. They will also change colour depending on the mode the truck’s driving in; for example, turning white when the driver is manually controlling the vehicle, and shifting to blue when driving autonomously.
The vehicle comes with radars and 3D cameras to ensure the safest possible drive while in autonomous mode, not unlike a plane’s autopilot function. Not only does it look for what’s on the road immediately in front of the truck, but also what’s around it: traffic, pedestrians, cyclists, and other such obstacles. It also comes equipped with a Blind Spot Assist feature, which monitors the sides of the truck through its radars to notify the driver of others on the road they may not be able to see. It’s a window into an exciting future for grads of dispatcher schools!
You can take a look at it yourself in this short clip:
Just Because it’s Autonomous Doesn’t Mean Drivers Can Sleep at the Wheel
This probably isn’t necessary to reiterate, but it bears repeating regardless—and you don’t need to have studied at any dispatch schools to understand why. As much as it’s advertised as a self-steering truck with a “highway pilot” controlling things, drivers still have to be attentive and responsible while at the wheel, and Mercedes themselves have stressed the need for drivers to be present and act as backup for robotics-based technology. The truck’s promotional clip even states that, “in spite of all this sophisticated technology, it is the driver who remains in charge.”
The Future Truck 2025 and its “highway pilot” are not a replacement for a driver; rather, they make the driver’s life easier, and their journey a safer one.
Not Only Is it a Self-Driving Truck, it’s an Environmentally-Friendly One, Too
One of the goals of the Future Truck 2025 will not only be to further advance technology in the trucking industry, but also to reduce CO2 emissions and consumption of fuel in the process. Through its ability to drive autonomously, the truck takes information obtained by the sensors (such as spotting objects in its vicinity, whether stationary or moving) and automatically controls the truck’s steering to minimize consumption of fuel as it keeps the truck in the centre lane of the highway. As a result of the more homogenous flow of traffic (since data about the truck is passed on to other networked vehicles on the road), fuel consumption is lessened. Once it finally hits the world’s highways, the Future Truck 2025 seems poised to be an achievement both for the trucking industry and its effects on the environment going forward.
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