Daimler to add hands-free driving to trucks Johnny

The shift towards autonomous vehicles shows no sign of slowing.

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this year, Daimler Trucks announced it was adding a hands- and foot-free driving capability to the latest version of its Freightliner Cascadia truck.

What’s more, the company plans to invest $570 million to develop fully-autonomous trucks over the next ten years.

Daimler’s Freightliner is the best-selling truck in the US, and these new features would meet the auto industry’s definition of level 2 autonomy (i.e. the driver can use automated features, but is still able to fully control the vehicle when required).

Speaking about this, Martin Daum, Daimler Trucks CEO said: “Highly automated trucks will improve safety, boost the performance of logistics and offer a great value proposition to our customers – and thus contribute considerably to a sustainable future of transportation.”

Earlier this month, Baum was disparaging about Tesla’s electric project, but Daimler are clearly keen for their own electric truck success.