Obstacles to platooning mostly legal (for now) says Scania

Back in September 2017, Waymo Chief Executive John Krafcik told Bloomberg that self-driving trucks may arrive before self-driving ride-share cars and robotaxis. Compared with the enormous complexity of navigating tight, congested and unpredictable city streets, trucks spend most of their useful lives on the highway – straight, wide and mostly free from pedestrians and other vulnerable road users.

Relatively speaking, it is hard to argue with Krafcik’s point, but as Scania pointed out in a 2017 press release, driving a vehicle of that size in a straight line at speeds approaching 90kph is is more difficult than one would expect. Christian Levin, Executive Vice President, Head of Sales and Marketing at Scania, explains that what may appear simple to a human can prove much the opposite for a machine.