Chinese-U.S. developer of autonomous vehicles TuSimple has been granted permission by the Swedish Transport Agency to test self-driving trucks on the E4 motorway between Södertälje and Jönköping in Sweden. The so-called ‘Hub2hub transportation’ which is driving on the motorway between reloading centers, will occur in collaboration with European truck OEM Scania. TuSimple is a key partner in Scania’s and Traton group’s investment in this field.
Loaded with goods for Scania’s production operations, the trucks will enter commercial service with the Scania Transport Laboratory. The trucks will be driven autonomously but for safety reasons, a driver will be supervising which then covers technology according to level 4 on the 5-point SAE scale for self-driving vehicles. A test engineer will also be on board during Scania’s tests to monitor and verify the information which is transmitted to the truck from the sensors that enable autonomous driving.
According to Hans Nordin, responsible for the Hub2hub project for Scania, in both China and the U.S. tests are already underway of trucks according to Level 4 on public roads, Scania and TuSimple are the first in Europe to test the technology on a motorway and with the payload.
Hub2hub transportation is the first kind of transportation on public roads where self-driving trucks can become a reality. The tests are expected to expand to cover the entire route between Södertälje and Helsingborg in Sweden and according to Hans Nordin, it’s expected to be able to test the technology in China and other European countries in the coming years.
