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Scania collaborates with TuSimple on Autonomous Trucks
Written by Daniel Andzhurov – December 8, 2021
Reviewed by Asaf Kedem
TuSimple is a Chinese-U.S. developer of autonomous vehicles and has been working together with a Swedish manufacturer of heavy lorries on an Autonomous Truck prototype since 2020. The intention of this joint project was to test L4-level self-driving trucks with payload on the Swedish E4 motorway between Sodertalje and Jonkoping. The Swedish Transport Agency had granted permission for testing at the time, however, not much more has been shared about the project until a few weeks ago.
In the Chinese CIIE Exhibition in Shanghai, a prototype of an autonomous Scania 500S was presented. In comparison to an earlier prototype (see picture on the left), which had racks on the roof with sensors, the latest one (see picture on the right) has everything integrated into a new roof and wind visor design. The vehicles look ready for Level 4 autonomous driving, which means having a driver in the cabin is a must. The driver’s main functions are expected to be monitoring and taking operation over in areas where autonomous driving is not possible.
Auto Trendy’s take:
We, at Auto Trendy, are not surprised by the unavailability of public information about this collaboration. In fact, it is logical for companies to be sensitive about innovation projects as their competitiveness depends highly on these projects. Moreover, we are slightly skeptical about the future of Level 4 Autonomous trucks as they miss one of the main cost-saving aspects: the driver. In other words, the productivity and profitability of these kinds of autonomous trucks still remain limited and untested compared to traditional trucks.
