Volvo, the Swedish manufacturer of some of the safest cars in the world, has changed the whole concept of how a truck is supposed to look like. One glance at its autonomous truck project, named Vera, and you will know this is true.
The vehicle has eerily close resemblance to a sportscar than a truck.
In case you wonder what made Volvo go for such an out-of-the-box design, the answer is simple - the truck is autonomous. Being self-driven means that it has no requirement of a human driver, which also means that there is no need for a high-rise cockpit in the truck.
Vera has been created to serve at the Swedish port in Gothenburg, transporting goods in cargo trailers from a logistics centre to the actual port terminal. The cargo will then be loaded onto boats for transport. Volvo has collaborated with logistics firm DFDS for its use in the real world.
Volvo Vera (Image: Volvo)
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As for the vehicle itself, Vera is an autonomous, connected freight-moving vehicle driven entirely by an electric motor. As per Volvo, Vera is ¡°suited for short distances, transporting large volumes of goods with high precision.¡±
The use case is simple, let the autonomous fleet manage the repetitive transportation at target locations like ports. Specifications of the vehicle itself have not been revealed by Volvo as of now.
The initiative has even been backed by the Swedish Innovation Agency Vinnova, the Swedish Transport Administration and FFI - the Swedish Energy Agency¡¯s Strategic vehicle research and innovation programme.
Volvo Vera
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Once in operation, Volvo says that the autonomous fleet will be controlled by a central operator which will be stationed at a ¡°control tower.¡± For now, the fleet will be operated at a top speed of 40 kmph.
The benefits
Making cargo transportation specific vehicles a thing of the future has its upsides. For one, the vehicles will be driven on a zero-emission powertrain, meaning no more pollutants released into the air by such massive IC engines. Couple that to a noise-free operation and they instantly become more attractive.
Volvo Vera
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Secondly, Vera is autonomous which also negates the requirement of a human driver, a growing cause of concern in several of the Western countries.
Once the project kicks off, it will have numerous applications in other logistics spaces as well. And it is poised to start soon, as Volvo confirms that the ¡°testing has already started¡± and that the solution will be implemented ¡°within the coming years,¡± in a press statement.
There are not much vehicles to be seen of this kind. Only Tesla's Semi truck can be considered anything close to it and even that is not! Reason? Tesla Semi, well, at least looks like a truck. A futuristic, sci-fi one but a truck nonetheless.
In the case of Vera though, you cannot be sure.