Italian commercial vehicle manufacturer Iveco and autonomous vehicle company Plus are starting public road testing of their jointly developed autonomous trucks in Germany. The companies will collect data on the PlusDrive-enabled Iveco S-Way truck to validate their autonomous truck’s operations and start designing for factory production, according to an Iveco press release.
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“Germany is a leader and trendsetter in autonomous driving, so we are excited to launch our public testing program in a country that has long embraced technology innovation and the life-changing impact of safety solutions like highly automated trucks,” said Marco Liccardo, chief technology and digital officer at Iveco Group. “This is an important phase in our plans to bring highly automated trucks to market.”
The public road testing starts in Germany and will expand to Austria, Italy, and Switzerland in the coming months. Each country’s unique roadways and driving conditions will expose the highly automated truck to a broad range of terrains, road gradients, weather conditions, and driving scenarios, helping to continuously expand the capabilities and features of Plus’s autonomous driving technology, according to an Iveco press release.
Shawn Kerrigan, co-founder and chief operating officer of Plus, said, “Real-world experience is an invaluable part of the testing and validation of our technology as we prepare our autonomous driving product for commercial deployment in Europe. Given that Germany alone faces a shortage of 60,000 truck drivers, our highly automated driving solution, PlusDrive, will help improve road safety, sustainability, and driver recruitment and retention issues confronting fleets in the region.”
