Scania's autonomous truck plans gain pace

Scania has announced it has gained approved from Swedish authorities to conduct tests of self-driving trucks on public roads, with the company saying it's the first time loaded autonomous trucks will have been trialed in traffic in Europe.

Permission has been granted by the Swedish Transport Agency for Scania to undertake testing on a stretch of motorway between Södertälje and Jönköping.

The test will be carried out in partnership with TuSimple, Scania and parent company TRATON Group's technology partner for the development of autonomous trucks.

Scania says the test will be conducted in accordance with Level 4 on the SAE's five-level scale, meaning the trucks will be driven autonomously but supervised and monitored by a driver. A test engineer will also be present.

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"In both the US and China, tests are already underway of trucks according to Level 4 on public roads, but as far as I know Scania is the first in Europe to test the technology on a motorway and with payload," says Hans Nordin, who is responsible for what is known as the 'Hub2hub' project.

"In the coming years, we also expect to be able to test the technology in other European countries and in China."

The tests represent the next major step in Scania's journey towards autonomous trucks. The company has been testing self-driving trucks in Australian mining operations since 2017.

"The experience gained from these tests shows that autonomous vehicles can become a reality in just a few years for transportation in closed areas such as mines and terminals," says Nordin, adding that driving on motorways between loading and unloading points is where the technology will manifest first on public roads.

"We have come so far in the development of self-driving vehicles that the technology may be ready to be introduced to the market already within the next five years for this type of transportation," he says.

"However, it will take longer before autonomous vehicles for driving on roads with two-way traffic and in urban environments becomes a reality."

Like the shift to sustainable transport, autonomous driving technology is shaping up as one of the major battlegrounds for vehicle manufacturers this century.

Daimler trialed an autonomous version of its Actros without a load on a German autobahn in 2015, while Volvo supplied an autonomous truck to a mining operation in Norway in 2018 and pressed its 'Vera' autonomous truck into service at a port terminal in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2019.