Daimler Truck brought its autonomous Freightliner eCascadia technology demonstrator to the ACT Expo in Las Vegas this week. With the goal to lead the transformation to sustainable transportation, the company is pursuing a vision of zero emissions and increased road safety by combining what it says are the two most promising technologies to deliver on that vision—battery-electric drive and integrated autonomous driving—in one semi-truck for the first time in its history.

The truck is based on a production battery-electric eCascadia but equipped with Torc Robotics‘ autonomous driving software and the latest sensor and compute technology that will eventually enable SAE Level 4 autonomous driving. While still a research and advanced engineering project, the truck maker says that the AV (autonomous vehicle) has the potential to evolve into a modular, scalable platform that is propulsion agnostic for flexible use in trucking applications for customers’ 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.”

Torc, Daimler Truck’s independent subsidiary for autonomous virtual driver technology, plays a key role in the effort.

“Together with Torc, we are making significant progress towards introducing autonomous trucks in the U.S. by 2027,” said Joanna Buttler, Head of Global Autonomous Technology Group at Daimler Truck. “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.”

 

eCascadia base

The battery-electric eCascadia, the base for the autonomous demonstrator, went into production in 2022 and has now reached 6 million real-world miles in more than 55 fleets in the U.S.

The Class 8 truck features several battery and drive axle options providing a typical range of 155 to 230 mi (250 to 370 km), depending on the specific configuration, and its battery pack can be recharged to 80% capacity in as little as 90 min. It is equipped with the proprietary Detroit ePowertrain electric propulsion and comes standard with the Detroit Assurance suite of safety systems including Active Brake Assist 5.

The demonstrator marks the first time that the autonomous sensor suite and compute power, currently being tested on the autonomous diesel Cascadia, is packaged to fit the smaller day cab configuration. The Daimler Truck North America engineering team developed an advanced prototype air-cooling concept for the compute stack positioned between the driver and passenger seats to ensure adequate cooling. Customized software provides the autonomous system with control interfaces and feedback on vehicle status.

The high-mounted sensor bar, which incorporates camera, lidar, and radar sensors, improves aerodynamic performance while protecting from damage and soiling. Four additional 12-V batteries provide enough power to ensure uninterrupted operation and increased efficiency and safety.

The demonstrator provides a glimpse of future autonomous use cases, including shorter, repeatable routes with the use of zero-emissions infrastructure.

In the current hub-to-hub application, the 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, enhancing efficiency for carriers.

Future autonomous trucks could also be powered by hydrogen-based propulsion technologies depending on the application.

 

Level 4 production in 2027

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 U.S. The company aims to enter the market with the production SAE Level 4 autonomous trucks in the U.S. by 2027.

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 it expects autonomous trucking to generate revenues of €3 billion and earnings before interest and taxes of more than €1 billion as early as 2030.

In early January, Daimler Truck and Torc Robotics announced the selection of Aeva to supply advanced, long and ultra-long range, 4D lidar technology to enable SAE Level 4 capabilities for the autonomous-ready Freightliner Cascadia truck platform. The multi-year collaboration begins in the first quarter of 2024 with Aeva’s start of production by 2026 and Daimler Truck production ramp by 2027.

At ACT Expo, Daimler Truck, Torc, and Aeva leaders discussed in a fireside chat the commercialization of autonomous trucking technology and the transition to Level 4 autonomy.

Daimler Truck plans to integrate the lidar sensors directly into its production process, making it easy for customers to buy autonomous ready trucks directly out of its manufacturing plants without the need for retrofitting. Torc will sell its virtual driver technology and support “Mission Control” services as a subscription to customers. Its driving software will use Aeva’s perception software and instant velocity data to detect objects faster, further away, and with higher accuracy.

Aeva’s FMCW (frequency modulated continuous wave) technology uses a low-power continuous laser beam to simultaneously measure range and velocity for every point. This enables AVs to instantaneously discriminate between static and dynamic points and know the precise velocity of dynamic objects.