No driver required: Volvo's newest truck gets rid of front cabin

By dpa | 14 October 2018


GOTHENBURG: Building any sort of vehicle that is impossible to drive should normally be something a manufacturer would be unhappy about, but with Volvo's new e-truck, that's its biggest triumph.

The Volvo Vera prototype, while sporting a number of the traditional features of a haulage vehicle, is raising eyebrows with its fully autonomous, cabin-free design.

Without a front cabin, the Vera has been developed as a tractor unit able to autonomously deliver large volumes of goods carried in existing trailer designs.

The aim is for the Vera to perform regular and repetitive tasks carried out over relatively short distances, making it ideal for logistics hubs, such as ports.



"The transport system we are developing can be an important complement to today's solutions and can help meet many of the challenges faced by society, transport companies and transport buyers," says Claes Nilsson, President of Volvo Trucks.

It is thought that, with no exhaust emissions and low noise levels, the lorries could operate at any time of day, with minimal difficulty.

The Vera's autonomous operations are linked to a cloud service and a transport control centre that continuously monitors the progress of the vehicle and keeps an accurate watch of its position, battery charge, and load content, as well as other parameters.

Although no release date has been set, the Vera is expected to be further developed alongside select Volvo customers in the near future.

Keywords