German truck and bus manufacturer MAN is set to develop a driverless truck, with the aim of tackling the driver shortage as well as reducing the number of accidents and traffic jams on German roads.

Driverless trucks to soon appear on German autobahn

The German truck and bus manufacturer MAN Truck & Bus SE is set to develop a driverless bus together with international companies like Bosch, Leoni and Knorr-Bremse. The manufacturing companies want to develop a bus that can drive between logistics hubs without a driver, announcing in Munich that automated trucks could be driving on the autobahn as early as “the middle of the decade.”

The aim of developing driverless trucks is to tackle the current driver shortage, as well as increase the flexibility of truck use and reduce diesel consumption. The driverless trucks should also help to reduce accidents and traffic jams on German roads, and bring down CO2 emissions.

Several German organisations involved in the project

The manufacturers have partnered with a number of other organisations for the project. The Technical Universities of Munich and Braunschweig, safety testing companies TÜV SÜD and BTC Embedded Systems, and driverless solutions company Fenride are all involved in the research project: “Automated transport between logistics centres on expressways at level 4.” The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security has also been brought on board to ensure the trucks are protected from cyber-attacks.

MAN Board Member for Development Frederik Zohm described the project as "an important step on the way to hub-to-hub automation, with which we are already looking at future series applications for Logistics 4.0."