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Peterbilt’s ‘Cruise Control of the Future’
DALLAS, TX -- Peterbilt showed off its take on autonomous vehicle technologies to reporters Friday during a Technology Showcase at the Texas Motor Speedway. Bill Kahn, manager of advanced concepts at Peterbilt, doesn't really like to call the two demonstration vehicles "autonomous," although they would qualify as a Level 3 autonomous vehicle under U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration classifications. He characterizes the technology more as the "cruise control of the future" and a "stepping stone to autonomous vehicles." Peterbilt engineers have dubbed it "advanced driver assist systems." A bumper-mounted radar system, on one of the trucks, and a lidar camera on the other, are used to determine the distance from the truck to the vehicle or obstacle ahead of it. The lidar has the added advantage of not only being able to determine an obstacle ahead, but also a wider field of "view" and the ability to provide some data on the size and shape of whatever's there.
