Vehicle manufacturer MAN is taking the next step toward automated convoy driving. MAN is cooperating with logistics service provider DB Schenker in order to test the so-called platooning in practice.
To this purpose, Gerhard Klein, Head of Engineering Central at MAN, and Ewald Kaiser, Chief Operating Officer Freight at DB-Schenker, signed a cooperation agreement at the trade fair transport logistic in Munich on Thursday.
Three questions need to be answered in the field, Klein said. These are: Is it possible to raise the value of the driving profession, how must vehicles' technical equipment change, and where must the legal situation be changed? The platoon will be tested in the field on the A9, where Federal Minister of Transport Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) has set up a digital test field motorway. Through this journey on this route, the platoon connects two hubs of DB-Schenker in Munich and Nuremberg. The use of such vehicles on the DB-Schenker premises in Nuremberg is intended as a second step. "MAN has been working on platooning for several years," Klein said. Now he's excited for practical testing.
"Interconnected and automated driving will revolutionize transport on the road," DB-Overland Transport Executive Kaiser said. DB-Schenker wants to shape digitization instead of being driven to it. He is pleased about MAN taking his company on this journey.
Kickoff will take place in spring with a two-vehicle platoon on the A9. The on-premise tour is planned for the following year. The long-term objective is to create the entire production process from local to long-distance transports as autonomous or semi-autonomous.
