The USA and China have been at the forefront of autonomous trucking development and testing on public roads.

Now it’s Europe’s turn to join the fray with both Scania and Iveco set to begin pilot test schemes.  

Scania is partnering with HAVI Supply Chain for a ground-breaking trial that sees an autonomous truck being used in the transport of commercial goods under regular traffic conditions. 

The pilot aims to learn about the effectiveness of autonomous truck transport as part of hub-to-hub operations on a route between Sodertalje and Jönköping, a three-hour journey of around 300km. The route forms part of a longer logistics flow for HAVI, with the first and last mile being handled by manually driven vehicles.

“We know the transport system will change in the coming years and that the industry faces challenges of driver shortages and diminishing margins, so the transformation process towards autonomous technology needs to start happening right away,” says Robert Melin Mori, the Scania project manager in charge of this initiative.

“We need to learn about autonomous operations now so that we are ready as soon as the technology is ready. We believe this pilot will be a hugely important stepping stone,” 

The pilot is a first step in showing how autonomous trucks can form part of a viable hub-to-hub logistics flow and allows Scania and HAVI to evaluate the effectiveness of the technology in their operations.

“This is an autonomous transport solution being used under real operating conditions with commercial goods for a third party. No one has done that before in Europe,” says Peter Hafmar, Head of Autonomous Solutions at Scania.

HAVI is a natural partner for Scania in this bold project. The two companies have already established a strong track record of cooperation in several forward-thinking initiatives around electrified transport.

Iveco is working with California-based Plus and has completed the initial phase of closed course testing to prove the technical feasibility and capabilities of the Level 4 PlusDrive-equipped Iveco S-WAY truck.

The next important phase of the pilot is to conduct public road testing, paving the way for Iveco and Plus to produce a semi-autonomous product as a first step and to prepare for ultimately manufacturing fully autonomous vehicles.

“By leveraging Iveco’s deep expertise in commercial vehicles and Plus’s leadership in autonomous driving technology, we are advancing our capability to develop and later commercialise the next generation of innovation-driven, safety-enhanced, sustainable transport solutions,” says Marco Liccardo, Chief Technology & Digital Officer, Iveco Group.

Initial public road testing in vehicles supervised by a safety driver will cover a number of countries in Europe including Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. The diversity in terrain, road gradient, weather, and driving scenarios all help to continuously expand the capabilities and features of Plus’s autonomous driving technology.