After a sneak peek back in July, Mercedes-Benz has finally unveiled the Future Truck 2025 in all its glory. As the name implies, the concept truck showcases what to expect from the near future of trucking, including autonomous driving technologies.
Still, all that hi-tech mumbo jumbo pales when you start start the engine and the plethora of LEDs light up the front fascia of the truck. It sort of looks like a Daft Punk helmet. But there's a catch to this visual gimmick: instead of conventional light units, orange flashing lights indicate when the truck is changing direction, but the light changes to white when the fully drivable concept truck is being controlled manually and on the move. When it's in full autonomous driving mode, the color of the LEDs changes from clear white to a cool shade of blue.
Tomorrow's truck promises to be a "revolution on the motorways." In order to do that, Mercedes-Benz fitted the Future Truck 2025 with an array of radar sensors and a suite of cameras dubbed "Highway Pilot" system. Basically, this highly technologized function is similar to the autopilot mode of a plane. In this regard, a complex sensor mounted in the front bumper scans the road up ahead to autonomously navigate the German truck.
Mercedes-Benz S-Class-inspired autonomous driving
But wait, there's more! Nevermind the side mirrors have been replaced by digital screens running live video footage of what's behind the Future Truck, but get a load of this: a trick stereo camera can analyze 100 meters up ahead, 45 degrees horizontally and 27 degrees vertically to identify stationary or moving objects, pedestrians and single or two-lane roads. Then there's the sea of wood and touchscreens fitted throughout the cabin of the Mercedes prototype.
But this isn't an all show and no go contraption: as you can see in the promo video below, engineers tested the Mercedes-Benz Future Truck 2025 in the summer at speeds of up to 80 km/h (50 mph) in real traffic situations on the A14 motorway in Germany.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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