In a launch at the Hoover Dam on the border of Nevada and Arizona in the US, Freightliner premiered its newest innovation. The spectacular dam was the scene of a massive projection display on the dam wall itself, powerful enough to get into the Guinness Book of Records.
The crowd, including TV crews from all over the USA, watched from the edge of the dam as the projection show lit up the night. Then the spotlights picked out the new autonomous truck as it crested the mountain in the distance and weaved its way towards the dam, through the desert landscape.
This level of hype is just about unprecedented, for a truck launch, and the kind of coverage this event has inspired has gone around the world.
The autonomous truck is the first of its kind, in the world, to be licensed to travel on public roads, without the driver in full control of the truck. The State of Nevada is a pioneer in letting these kinds of trucks out into the world, as a planned testing program should hit the road later this year.
The system is simply an extension of the kind of automation already available in some trucks:
Here is ome more of the spectacular footage of the new trucks out in the Nevada desert on the preliminary testing program:
https://youtu.be/fgvRf5-9xn8