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