Mercedes-Benz demonstrated it impressively a few years ago on a section of highway that had not yet been opened: An autonomously driving articulated truck swims along in heavy traffic at highway cruising speed, while its sporty, youthful driver uses his nimble fingers to take care of office tasks on his tablet while driving. The spectacle was technically fascinating and could be put into practice with an enormous amount of infrastructural installations, but the question remains: who actually wants this? While electronically coupled platooning, or platooning for short, is currently undergoing its first practical trials as a simple autonomous solution, the industry is further away from trucks actually driving fully autonomously on public roads than some technology-loving developers would have us believe. No federal state is currently making any effort to invest in the necessary radio infrastructure, the technology costs of the vehicle are not offset by any real amortization and the possible lack of qualified drivers presents the industry with much more important challenges than retraining the remaining German-speaking drivers as office assistants at the wheel.

ZF shows how it works
In the run-up to the IAA, system manufacturer ZF is demonstrating how autonomous driving can already function effectively today at its technology campus in Friedrichshafen. Autonomous driving takes place there in the company yard. In concrete terms, the handling of swap bodies, a prime discipline for experienced trailer truck drivers, will be demonstrated completely driverless. A solo truck with a swap body moves swap bodies from one location to another completely autonomously. Thanks to radar and camera monitoring as well as WLAN and GPS connection, the heavy truck performs the demanding maneuvering exercises with applause-worthy precision, which remains consistently high even after ten hours of work. The system has not yet mastered locking the twist locks on the vehicle or folding in the parking legs. Humans would still be required for this last mile.

Efficiency instead of long waits
Terberg's transfer vehicle performs its maneuvering job on the company premises with equal accuracy. It places its height-adjustable saddle plate under the kingpin of the semi-trailer with centimeter precision, picks it up and moves the trailer to the ramp with pinpoint accuracy, sets it down and rushes to the next transfer customer with a growling diesel engine. With this technology, drivers could be freed from hours of waiting in front of the ramps of large unloading points and actually do something useful. ZF is contributing the most important components for this brave new world in the loading yard. The electronic control and sensor systems of the vehicles play hand in hand with new components such as electro-hydraulic steering or the hybrid components of the ZF Traxon transmission. With this partial electrification in the driveline, the trucks could also scurry across the yard in shunting mode purely electrically and thus whisper-quietly, which would also be no obstacle to night-time handling in residential areas. Or the parcel transporter, which is GPS-controlled on the last mile to the delivery addresses, pays attention to the traffic and reacts dynamically to changing routes. Here, the human is merely a passenger, nimbly dropping the parcel directly to the addressee's door. At the heart of all future scenarios in freight handling is the corresponding intelligent computer technology that ZF has developed together with computer specialist nVidia. Parcels with electronic tags that not only know their address and location, but also transmit the route, temperature and other transport-relevant data to the recipient in real time. At the unloading ramp, the driverless forklift truck controlled by the central computer is already waiting to transport the load safely to its destination. ZF is testing this system virtually on its own premises at its plant in Friedrichshafen. The aFAS project, in which MAN and seven other partner companies played a leading role, is pursuing an approach that is as pragmatic as it is practical. This is more or less the low-speed version of autonomous driving for a highway maintenance vehicle. Because the job of the work brigades on the hard shoulder is extremely risky. In Hesse alone, where the pilot project has already been successfully implemented in practice, there are 300 accidents involving safety vehicles every year.

Autonomous safety drive
Due to the drastic difference in speed between a maximum of 10 km/h in a safety vehicle with a warning sign trailer in tow and the approximately 85 km/h of a truck, these collisions are often dramatic. In the MAN TGM 18.340 with aFAS technology (automatic driverless safety vehicle for work sites on federal highways), the driver's seat remains empty during the safety drive up to a hundred meters behind the work crew. A stable WLAN radio connection is first established at a maximum distance of ten meters between the lead vehicle on the job and the safety truck equipped with radar and camera technology. The driver of the TGM can then turn his attention to other tasks at the work site, while his truck maintains the specified distance with stoic precision at a speed of between 2 and 10 km/h and follows the road workers until the work is completed. At the end of the work, the autonomously driving two-axle truck will be "caught" again and steered to the next job site by its driver like a normal TGM. This intelligent guidance far behind the lead vehicle can no longer be realized with radar and camera alone. An environment sensor system specially developed for this application with integrated and absolutely reliable object and lane recognition also enables the electronic brain in the TGM to record and analyze data on route characteristics and the traffic situation. The collected driving information is then transferred to the steering, drive and braking system via tried-and-tested components. An electro-hydraulic servomotor for operating the steering system and intelligent control of the accelerator and brakes are also part of the technology package, as is a double-safety braking system that stops the truck immediately if radio contact is lost.

Against mindless crawling
The highway maintenance authorities are highly interested in the project. Not only because it can save lives at the wheel of the safety truck, but also because it automates the mindless, but nevertheless stressful crawling of the driver. In the meantime, he can take care of other tasks at the workplace. Volvo Trucks is also serving up a little bit of autonomy for daily practice at this year's IAA. The electro-hydraulic steering system VDS (Volvo Dynamic Steering), which has been available as an option for a few years now, has been given a touch of intelligence. In addition to the individual adjustment of steering force and return torque, the VDS model year 2019 has an active Lane Guard Assistant. In contrast to the annoying rattling acoustic alarm, which experience has shown is quickly switched off in everyday driving, the new Lane Keeping Assist actively intervenes in the steering if the truck obviously leaves the lane unintentionally. If the truck crosses the lane markings without indicating, the on-board camera reports the need for action to the steering system, which in turn intervenes gently but firmly within fractions of a second to bring the truck back on course. However, the system was not developed for autonomous steering. After several interventions at the wheel, the on-board computer reminds the driver to drive more attentively. This minimally autonomous feature is an excellent addition to the existing safety package of a modern truck, without taking away the driver's responsibility or attention, because, as the experienced traffic psychologist Johannes Vetter from Munich knows, complete decoupling certainly harbors risks. With a fully comprehensive mindset at the wheel, some drivers often underestimate the potential dangers that can emanate from a road train moving at highway speed, even with the maximum equipment of assistance and safety systems. An additional feature of the latest VDS steering system provides a combination of practical maneuvering assistance and a child's dream finally come true: using an industrial-style radio remote control, the Volvo driver can steer, brake and accelerate his truck up to a maximum of 10 km/h from an outside location. This allows the truck to be steered with centimeter precision from any viewing position, for example at the tipping edge, at the road paver or on narrow ramps. Here, too, it is ultimately up to the human operator. Even this system is not immune to gross human misjudgements of space, speed and path. Taking stock of the current state of development of autonomous truck traffic, it is clear that we will probably have to wait a long time for a fully self-driving truck in everyday road traffic. However, the practical interpretations of autonomous driving are already impressive. And finally, we should not forget the men and women behind the wheel. After all, almost all drivers choose the driving profession because they want to drive - and not because they have to work as office assistants on wheels.

About the author:
Expert and specialist journalist Oliver Willms has been writing about the commercial vehicle sector for LT-manager since 2010.