Daimler Trucks North America’s Freightliner new Cascadia® was awarded the prestigious honor of “Best Transportation Technology” at the engadget annual ”Best of CES” awards ceremony at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). According to engadget, the Transportation Technology category is awarded to the best technology related to the “ever-advancing science of getting from here to there.” The truck debuted at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Monday, and is the first SAE Level 2 automated truck to enter series production in North America.
“With the new Cascadia, we aim to significantly reduce both accidents and fuel consumption with advancements in automation, helping the truck drivers do their job with more safety and with less fuel,” said Roger Nielsen, President and CEO of Daimler Trucks North America. “We are facing more trucks on the road with increased hauling demands, regulatory pressures and ongoing global concerns over energy resource depletion. Now more than ever, it is imperative that we continue to innovate and push our engineering solutions striving, above all, for safety and helping our customers to run their business efficiently.”
Journalists from over 25 countries experienced the truck’s SAE Level 2 driving capabilities at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Monday shortly after Martin Daum, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG with responsibility for Daimler Trucks & Buses, announced that Daimler Trucks will put highly automated, SAE level 4 trucks on American roads within a decade. Daum also announced the company would hire nearly 200 mechatronics and robotics experts at their Automated Truck R&D Center in Portland, Oregon in support of this effort.
Detroit Assurance® 5.0 enables SAE Level 2 driving in the new Cascadia. The suite of camera- and radar-based safety systems assists the driver by accelerating, decelerating, and steering independently. The Detroit Assurance 5.0 Adaptive Cruise Control and Active Lane Assist features make automated driving possible in all speed ranges for the first time in a series production truck.
“Highly automated trucks will improve safety, boost the performance of logistics and offer a great value proposition to our customers – and thus contribute considerably to a sustainable future of transportation,” said Daum.
In May 2015, Daimler Trucks North America initiated the industry conversation on automated driving with the introduction of the Freightliner Inspiration Truck at Hoover Dam. This was the first automated truck licensed to operate on U.S. public highways. Fast forward to CES 2019, the unveil of the new Cascadia with Detroit Assurance 5.0 brought the Inspiration Truck to fruition, delivering SAE Level 2 automated driving for the first time in North America.
The Best of Transportation Technology award was accepted on Thursday evening by Michael McHorse, director of channel marketing for Freightliner and Detroit, at the awards ceremony held on the engadget stage at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
SOURCE: Daimler Trucks North America
