ACU Feb-19 3rd Draft

TRUCKING
or over 50 years, the annual
FConsumer Electronics Show
(CES) in Las Vegas has been
t h e w o r l d ' s l a r g e s t p l a t f o r m
showcasing cutting-edge electronics
and tech products. But this year the
event also played host to global auto
makers with new cars and trucks now
laden with technology.
Daimler Trucks, which made record
profits in its history by selling more
than half a million trucks all over the
world in 2018, was among the auto
makers that participated at the
January 7, 2019 CES.
Martin Daum, Daimler Trucks &
Buses CEO and member of the Board
of Management of Daimler AG, said
it's only fitting to launch their latest
truck at the event as “the modern
truck is all about technology: 400
sensors on board, roughly 100 million
lines of software code, hundreds of
thousands of our trucks worldwide
constantly online.”
In his speech at the CES, Daum also
noted 2018 was the company's most
successful year in its history with
record sales mainly driven in the US.
“Our strong results are due to our
customer focus. We want to make our
customers better every day – and
thus, feel an obligation to innovate.
We build to provide solutions, making
sure to develop and to offer the right
product at the right time – and with
the quality and reliability our
customers deserve to expect from
Daimler,” the CEO said.
New Investment
At the event, Daum
announced Daimler Trucks
will invest EUR 500 million
(around USD 570 million) in
the coming years and will
create more than 200 new
jobs in its global push to
bring highly automated
trucks (SAE level 4) to the
road within a decade.
Regionally, the US would pilot the
Level 4 concept in building highly
a u t o m a t e d t rucks. S o m e 2 0 0
positions for mechatronics engineers
or robotics specialists with IT and
programming skills will be filled at the
D a i m l e r Tr u c k s & B u s e s n e w
Automated Truck Research &
Development Center in Portland,
Oregon for this project.
Daimler said the center's experts
are dedicated to all aspects of
developing, testing and validating
automated vehicles. Plus, its
engineers work in close cooperation
with their colleagues in the research
and development centers at Daimler
Tr u c k s l o c a t i o n s i n St u t t g a r t
(Germany) and Bangalore (India), thus
forming a global network.
The company said a crucial success
factor for the development of a safe
and reliable level 4 highly automated
truck is a closely coordinated system
of engineering and technology
development.
Level 4
In commercial trucking, level 4 is
the natural next step after level 2,
increasing efficiency and productivity
for customers, cutting costs per mile
significantly, Daimler said noting that
it's skipping the intermediate step of
conditionally automated driving
(level 3) as it does not offer truck
customers a substantial advantage
compared to the current situation
with no corresponding benefits to
compensate for the technology costs.
Level 4, which is Daimler's current
goal project, means there's no driver