Autonomous Daimler Trucks: “On long-distance routes without a driver”

Daimler Truck is pushing ahead with plans for self-driving trucks in the USA. In an interview, Daimler Truck CEO Martin Daum explains what role the hub-to-hub concept plays in this and when there could be autonomously driving trucks in Europe.

tagesschau.de: You are testing robotic trucks in the USA. There is the hub concept. What is that?

Martin Daum: Our goal is to drive on the Autobahn – it’s a lot easier, a lot safer than in city traffic. I can’t imagine a 40-ton truck in city traffic without a driver. That’s why we have agreed on a so-called hub-to-hub concept here in the USA. A hub is a staging area for trucks, where the trucks from local routes up to 300, 400 kilometers away come together – so driven by drivers – then they are coupled at the articulated lorry to this automated vehicle, which looks like a regular truck, just a lot more electronics inside, and then drive long-distance without a driver. At the end of the long-distance journey, they go to such a hub again, then uncouple, couple to a truck with a driver and then it goes to the final destination.

tagesschau.de: Your order books are well filled. You have set yourself the goal of building more than half a million commercial vehicles this year. If you look at the production figures for electric cars from the past year, then only 712 vehicles were built there. Why is it taking so long – the switch to electric drive or hydrogen?

thumb: There are three requirements for this to be successful: You need a good offer from the industry – we’re involved now and are rolling out cars within cars, and with the E-Actros we now have an excellent car on offer in Europe. We are also relatively leaders in the city bus sector with our electric city bus.

But that is only one requirement. The two other requirements are: on the one hand, that we need an infrastructure, and that is more difficult with trucks because significantly more energy is required. The charging station in the garage is not enough. It then takes at least 300 kilowatts to charge overnight, or one megawatt. And hydrogen, we are only in the process of getting an infrastructure.

And the third thing is, of course, cost parity: Nobody drives a truck for fun, they want to make money with it. And then the electric, the hydrogen truck must be cheaper to operate – including the purchase price – than the conventional one. And it’s not that far yet. All who claim that are wrong. It’s only possible with heavy subsidies, and I can’t subsidize thousands of them. That means we have to bring the cost of the truck miracles. And in the end, of course, the CO2 pricing of truck journeys must also go up.

“Autonomous driving brings great improvement”

tagesschau.de: Autonomous driving: This could also – at least according to the unions – cost many jobs. Do you expect resistance from the unions, especially here in the US?

thumb: We took a look at the volume of freight that is autonomously capable in the USA: That is about six percent of the total annual freight volume. If we assume that the freight volume will increase by up to 50 percent in the next ten years, if we assume that we have far too few drivers today, then we’ll be happy if we have a good solution for six percent of the freight volume to have.

Autonomous driving also brings a major improvement for the driver: the driver is back home in the evening. So this hub-to-hub concept is designed in such a way that the driver has a maximum of half a day to travel to the hub, he drives back and is at home in the evening. The worst thing about drivers is that the ten days are on the road and not at home. It’s one reason why – if you look at the drivers in Europe – almost no one comes from Germany or the Netherlands anymore, but mostly from the eastern countries, because then it’s still a very well paid job, but a very very difficult and very, very hard job.

tagesschau.de: When can we expect autonomously driving trucks on our autobahns in Germany?

thumb: I think we need at least until 2030 until we have enough experience here in the US. By then there will also be a legal framework in Europe, which has to be a European legal framework, where we all know that it will take quite a long time before we have something like this. And then we’ll see. I think it’s technically possible – definitely in terms of the truck. Everything that fits into the Cascadia here in the USA also fits into the Actros in Europe. And then that can be expanded significantly. But I foresee countries like Australia or Canada – before we deal with Europe.