MAN is fully committed to autonomous trucks

The focus at MAN has increasingly been on autonomous driving since the practical Hamburg TruckPilot field testing that was successfully completed with Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) in June 2021. “Pilot projects like Hamburg TruckPilot prove that it’s technologically feasible to deploy self-driving trucks and that they can be efficiently integrated into logistical processes. We’re working closely with customers and partners to come up with practical automation solutions. Our objective is to bring self-driving trucks into series production from 2030”, announces Dr Frederik Zohm, Executive Board Member for Research and Development at MAN. Clear future prospects are envisaged at MAN: “Autonomous driving will be a game changer in transport”, Zohm states.

MAN’s roadmap to 2030

MAN is successively planning further cooperation projects to expedite automation and make autonomous hub-to-hub traffic a reality. Application testing of self-driving MAN trucks that are integrated into customer’s corporate operating procedures will be possible from the middle of this decade. The objective is to offer autonomously driving trucks as a series solution from 2030. Alongside emission-free drives, these vehicles not only increase the safety and efficiency of logistics, but also make a significant contribution to reducing the carbon footprint left by freight transport_.

Facilities operate 24/7

Till Schlumberger, who was the HHLA project manager responsible for Hamburg TruckPilot, clarifies the true nature of the pioneering technological achievement behind this successful test run: “HHLA’s highly automated processes make Container Terminal Altenwerder the ideal test environment for testing promising future technologies. Our facilities are in operation 24/7, 360 days a year. However, safely integrating autonomous trucks into our terminal processes is a major challenge, because it involves blending both autonomous and regular traffic. Hamburg TruckPilot has enabled us to demonstrate that such implementation is possible in practice and that it’s very promising.”

In preparation for future test runs in automated hub-to-hub traffic and for forthcoming projects involving automated trucks, the project participants have already been collating lots of data during field test journeys on the A7 feeder routes between the Weets container terminal at Soltau and the port facilities 70 kilometres away. Introduction of the law on autonomous driving in Germany has now made it possible to also conduct these field test journeys beyond enclosed areas. Sebastian Völl, project manager for automated driving at MAN Truck & Bus, is very pleased with the results of the practical field testing at the Port of Hamburg, where the autonomous truck used cameras and sensors to safely negotiate its route through the container terminal: “Hamburg TruckPilot was our first step into autonomous driving. The first time the prototype managed to manoeuvre independently within a container storage lane proved to us that it works: We can meet the high accuracy requirements. The interplay among sensor technology, environment detection and automation systems was perfectly capable of mastering the journey across the terminal site with all the other manually controlled trucks. I was massively proud of the entire team as the first container with a real load was lifted from the chassis! We can now build on these experiences for future projects.”