Scania to trial autonomous vehicles public roads
Scania is partnering with HAVI Supply Chain for a ground-breaking new trial that sees an autonomous truck being used in the transport of commercial goods.
The pilot, carried out under normal traffic conditions, aims to learn about the effectiveness of autonomous truck transport as part of hub-to-hub operations.
In what is a first for Europe, Scania and HAVI Supply Chain are trialling the use of a fully-autonomous vehicle to transport commercial goods in regular traffic conditions between logistics hubs.
The pilot will see the autonomous truck drive between Södertälje and Jönköping, a journey of around 300km, with the first and last mile being handled by manually-driven vehicles.
The pilot is a first step in showing how autonomous trucks can form part of a viable hub-to-hub logistics flow and allows Scania and HAVI to evaluate the effectiveness of the technology in their operations.
“We know the transport system will change in the coming years and that the industry faces challenges of driver shortages and diminishing margins, so the transformation process towards autonomous technology needs to start happening right away,” says Robert Melin Mori, the Scania project manager in charge of this initiative.
“We need to learn about autonomous operations now so that we are ready as soon as the technology is ready. We believe this pilot will be a hugely important stepping stone,” he added.
“This is an autonomous transport solution being used under real operating conditions with commercial goods for a third party. No one has done that before in Europe. We are delighted to be working with HAVI on this pilot,” said Peter Hafmar, Head of Autonomous Solutions at Scania.
Mr Hafmar went on to say that HAVI is a natural partner for Scania in this project. The two companies have already established a strong track record of cooperation in several forward-thinking initiatives around electrified transport, in keeping with their shared commitment to decarbonising the transport system and exploring innovations to improve the efficiency and sustainability of commercial transport operations.
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