91. The Gentle Giant: Picking Daimler Truck's Brain About Smart Trucks

The average 18-wheeler on America’s roads is an engineering marvel, roughly 17 tons (not including freight) of transportation muscle that powers our economy and our way of life. As the old saying goes, “If you bought it, trucks brought it.” .  Picture in your mind one of these behemoths barreling down the highway—with no driver. . Can you imagine a world where that’s the safest vehicle on the road? . Daimler Truck can, and they’re working night and day to deliver on the vision of fully autonomous trucks transforming the industry, while improving the health, safety, and quality of life of truck drivers and creating new career paths in the mobility sector. . To explain how we’ll get there, SAE Tomorrow Today spoke with Dr. Rainer Müller-Finkeldei, Senior Vice President of Engineering & Technology at Daimler Truck North America. As the global market leader in heavy duty trucking with 40% market share in the US, Daimler Truck literally is trucking’s heavyweight champion of the world. Now they’re setting their sights on the future of trucking – autonomy, electrification, zero emissions, and the development of hydrogen fuel cells for the long haul. In this episode, Dr. Müller-Finkeldei elaborates on these efforts, as well as the work that Daimler Truck is doing with development partners Torc and Waymo, and what the company is doing to promote sustainability and more. . Stay up to date on the latest news from Daimler Truck North America. . We’d love to hear from you. Share your comments, questions and ideas for future topics and guests to [email protected]. Don’t forget to take a moment to follow SAE Tomorrow Today (and give us a review) on your preferred podcasting platform. . Follow SAE on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Follow host Grayson Brulte on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.