Driverless trucks on Europe's roads - 20th January 2023

Scania, the Swedish lorry manufacturer, has become the first European organisation to test-drive autonomous vehicles while delivering commercial goods. At this stage, the lorry is driving itself, although a real driver's still behind the wheel.

At first sight, the lorry looks no different from any other vehicle, apart from a roof packed with a range of cameras and 'lidars' or sensors. These connect with technological devices in the driver's compartment to provide feedback to a computer. All the GPS and sensor input is combined to control the vehicle.

Göran Fjällid's one of Scania's engineers.

Göran Fjällid: "This was a normal truck but they have put a lot of sensors in the truck. This was a lidar. It was a light and the second lidar and we have the third lidar in the front."

Göran Fjällid: "And we have the other sensor in the roof. It was 10 cameras and one lidar, long distance lidar, and we have GPS and some other sensors."

If the truck encounters a problem, Scania can supervise from a control tower back at base. Alternatively, the safety driver simply hits the accelerator to resume control of the vehicle.

Globally, there are a host of companies in the race to create self-driving vehicles, in part because there's a world shortage of truckers. There were an estimated 2.6 million vacant positions in 2021. Scania's vice-president, Peter Hafmar, is convinced that as well as reducing accidents, driverless vehicles will also support the environment.

Peter Hafmar: "Then we'll also have safety. The computer and the sensor sets are very safe so they don't get distracted with check their phones or something like that. And also they have the environmental aspect that, well we don't have to focus on drivers' hours. We can drive all 24/7 and we can reduce the speed, which then reduce the energy consumption, so we don't have to charge the vehicle."

Some key issues still remain, including legal matters relating to road transport in different countries, so it may be another decade before self-driving vehicles become relatively commonplace on our roads.