MAN Truck & Bus conducts first autonomous truck test on autobahn

In many science fiction movies showing the distant future, vehicles are shown as operating by themselves and what we know as the driver today doesn’t have to pay attention or be involved in the what the car is doing. That’s what is known as an autonomous vehicle and some carmakers have already reached an advanced stage where passenger cars can be left to operate on their own.

Autonomous cars which can operate entirely without human involvement are still limited in number and can only be used in certain areas which are designed to enable them to operate safely. There are also autonomous taxis now in some cities and again, their routes are limited.

In the commercial vehicle world, autonomous vehicles have also been under development and MAN Truck & Bus is the first commercial vehicle manufacturer to receive a Level 4 motorway test permit. Level 4, as defined by the US Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and adopted by the auto industry, is where the vehicle can operate entirely by itself, just like the autonomous taxis.

With the permit to operate its autonomous truck on the autobahn, MAN had its first run of about 10 kms with German Federal Transport Minister Dr. Volker Wissing and MAN CEO Alexander Vlaskamp on board.

For the test drive of the first autonomous truck, Autobahn GmbH examined MAN’s concept as part of the application for a test licence before the Federal Motor Transport Authority officially granted the company approval at the beginning of April.

In future, Autobahn GmbH (a government agency managing autobahns) will also be responsible for approving operating areas on motorways for the series approval of autonomous vehicles. The vehicle operator specifies the routes on which its vehicles with autonomous driving functions are to drive, and the authority then checks whether these routes are suitable for the operation of these vehicles with autonomous driving functions.

For the commercial vehicle industry, the advantage of having Level 4 autonomy is obvious: greater safety, less fatigue for drivers and optimised transport processes. And at this time when there is a shortage of truck drivers, an autonomous vehicle is very useful.

Freight volumes and, in particular, transport between logistics hubs – such as the warehouses of large online department stores – are growing steadily. The use of autonomous trucks in this so-called hub-to-hub transport is particularly suitable for this. The trucks are always on the road, extremely efficient in terms of consumption and safe to drive. There are no driving time breaks, so the vehicles can be perfectly integrated into tightly synchronised logistics processes.

Some 500 engineers at MAN and the TRATON Group are driving autonomous vehicle development forward, and over 133 patents have already been registered. In the long term, the efficient use of autonomous trucks can reduce overall operating costs by 10% to 15% to 15%.

“Today, we are taking another big step towards autonomous commercial vehicles, the second major future field alongside the switch to CO₂-free motoring. This year, we are initially running tests with prototypes on the motorway. Further hub-to-hub projects will follow from 2025, in typical customer applications. We are thus taking the next development step towards series production of autonomous trucks towards the end of the decade,” said Alexander Vlaskamp, Chairman of the Executive Board of MAN Truck & Bus SE.

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