Daimler Truck unveils battery electric autonomous Freightliner eCascadia technology demonstrator
PORTLAND, Ore./LEINFELDEN-ECHTERDINGEN, Germany (May 8, 2024)— Daimler Truck
has the clear goal to lead the transformation to sustainable transportation and
to address the challenges of tomorrow. The company is pursuing a vision of zero
emissions and increased road safety by combining the two most promising
technologies to deliver on that vision--battery electric drive and integrated
autonomous driving technology--in one semi-truck for the first time in its
history: the autonomous Freightliner eCascadia technology demonstrator.
The truck is based on a production battery electric
Freightliner eCascadia and is equipped with Torc's autonomous driving software
and the latest Level 4 sensor and compute
technology. This will eventually enable Level 4 autonomous driving. Torc
Robotics is Daimler Truck’s independent subsidiary for autonomous virtual
driver technology. While still a research and advanced engineering project, the
autonomous vehicle has the potential to evolve into a modular, scalable
platform that is propulsion agnostic for flexible use in different trucking
applications. The goal is to offer customers a choice of the right vehicles for
their specific business and transportation needs.
“By combining zero-emission and autonomous technologies
in one product, we are testing solutions for challenges our customers are
likely to face in the future,” said John O'Leary, president and CEO of Daimler
Truck North America. “We want to give them choices that allow them to do what
they do best: keep the world moving today and well into the future. That takes
a lot of foresight, questioning, testing, learning, improving and co-creating
with our customers years in advance to ultimately find the right solution. This
truck is a great example of the beginning of that development process.”
Joanna Buttler, Head of Global Autonomous Technology Group at
Daimler Truck, added: “Together with Torc, we are making significant
progress towards introducing autonomous trucks in the U.S. by 2027. While
we target autonomous trucks with conventional propulsion technology for this
first market launch, we always look further into the future. We will employ an
iterative approach to the development, testing and optimization of autonomous-electric
technology, while exploring the most promising use cases in collaboration with our
fleet customers.”
Technical specifications: Merging the best of both
worlds
The industry-leading battery electric
Freightliner eCascadia, a proven vehicle base for the autonomous eCascadia
technology demonstrator, went into production in 2022 and has now reached 6
million real-world miles in more than 55 fleets in the United States. This zero-emission
Class 8 truck is designed to provide optimal productivity for fleets looking to
transition to efficient, zero-emission tractors. The battery can be recharged to
80 percent capacity in as little as 90 minutes. Several battery and drive axle
options are available, providing a typical range of 155, 220 or 230 miles,
depending on the specific configuration. The Freightliner eCascadia is equipped
with the proprietary Detroit ePowertrain, which delivers performance,
efficiency, and reliability. For added safety on the road, the eCascadia also
comes standard with the Detroit Assurance suite of safety systems, including
Active Brake Assist 5.
For the first time, the autonomous
sensor suite and compute power, currently being
tested on the autonomous diesel Cascadia, is packaged to fit the smaller day
cab configuration of the battery electric eCascadia. To ensure adequate
cooling, Daimler Truck North America’s engineering team developed an advanced
prototype air-cooling concept for the compute
stack, which is efficiently positioned between the driver and passenger seats. Customized
software provides the autonomous system with control interfaces and feedback on
vehicle status. The in-house designed sensor bar cover, which incorporates
cameras, lidar sensors and radar sensors, improves aerodynamic performance
while providing better protection from damage and soiling. Four additional
12-volt batteries provide enough high voltage power to ensure uninterrupted
operation and increased efficiency and safety.
A glimpse into the future
Daimler Truck is dedicated to
exploring the potential of emerging technologies to benefit its customers. The
company aims to provide them with the optimal vehicle solutions, utilizing
various propulsion technologies, to enable the most suitable and efficient transportation
of their goods. By developing a propulsion-agnostic autonomous truck platform,
Daimler Truck is leveraging its collective strength to make a positive impact
on the future of transportation.
The autonomous eCascadia demonstrator
provides a glimpse of future autonomous use cases, including shorter, repeatable
routes with the use of zero-emissions infrastructure. Depending on the
application, future autonomous trucks could also be powered by hydrogen-based
propulsion technologies.
In the currently tested hub-to-hub application, the truck’s intent
is to drive autonomously between freight centers along U.S. highway corridors. By
identifying synergies between zero emissions and autonomous infrastructure in a
future scenario, the charging infrastructure and autonomous freight hubs could
be combined to charge and load simultaneously, further enhancing efficiency for
carriers.
The autonomous eCascadia
technology demonstrator is designed with many commonalities with the production
eCascadia, leveraging synergies in the development process, streamlining
engineering processes and increasing customer value through ease of
serviceability as customers may already be familiar with the battery electric
Cascadia.
Constant progress
Daimler Truck has been developing and testing autonomous truck technology
since 2015 with the reveal of the Freightliner Inspiration Truck as the first
licensed SAE Level 2 autonomous commercial truck to operate on open public
highways in the United States. The company aims to enter the market with
production SAE Level 4 autonomous trucks in the United States by 2027. Daimler
Truck’s technology partner Torc has been testing autonomous-ready Freightliner
Cascadia trucks in real-world applications with selected logistics companies
such as Schneider and C.R. England, successfully moving customer freight
autonomously on its test route between Phoenix and Oklahoma City, over the past
year.
Daimler Truck has emphasized that it will leverage the highly
scalable and profitable market opportunity that autonomous driving is expected
to offer, and that it expects autonomous trucking to generate revenues of 3
billion Euro and EBIT of more than 1 billion Euro as early as 2030.
Daimler
Truck North America LLC, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, is a leading
provider of comprehensive products, services, and technologies for the
commercial transportation industry. Daimler Truck North America designs,
engineers, manufactures and markets medium- and heavy-duty trucks, school
buses, vehicle chassis and their associated technologies and components under
the Freightliner, Western Star, Thomas Built Buses, Freightliner Custom Chassis
Corp, and Detroit brands. Daimler Truck North America is a subsidiary of
Daimler Truck Holding AG (DTG), one of the world’s leading commercial vehicle
manufacturers.
About Daimler
Truck
Daimler
Truck Holding AG ("Daimler Truck") is one of the world's largest
commercial vehicle manufacturers, with over 40 main locations and more than
100,000 employees around the globe. The founders of Daimler Truck have invented
the modern transportation industry with their trucks and buses a good 125 years
ago. Unchanged to this day, the company's aspirations are dedicated to one
purpose: Daimler Truck works for all who keep the world moving. Its customers
enable people to be mobile and get goods to their destinations reliably, on
time, and safely. Daimler Truck provides the technologies, products, and
services for them to do so. This also applies to the transformation to
CO2-neutral driving. The company is striving to make sustainable transport a
success, with profound technological knowledge and a clear view of its
customers' needs. Daimler Truck's business activities are structured in five
reporting segments: Trucks North America (TN) with the truck brands
Freightliner and Western Star and the school bus brand Thomas Built Buses.
Trucks Asia (TA) with the FUSO, BharatBenz and RIZON commercial vehicle brands.
Mercedes-Benz (MB) with the truck brand of the same name. Daimler Buses (DB)
with the Mercedes-Benz and Setra bus brands. Daimler Truck's new Financial
Services business (DTFS) constitutes the fifth segment, the product range in
the truck segments includes light, medium and heavy trucks for long-distance,
distribution and construction traffic and special-purpose vehicles used mainly
in the municipal and vocational sector. The product range of the bus segment
includes city buses, school buses and intercity buses, coaches and bus chassis.
In addition to the sale of new and used commercial vehicles, the company also
offers aftersales services and connectivity solutions.
