May 20, 2015 Vol. 12 No. 10

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the recent launch of the autonomous Freightliner Inspiration truck wasn’t the truck itself, impressive though it is. Nor was it the spectacular presentation that involved 60 projectors throwing an enormous amount of light onto the huge face of the Hoover Dam. No, for me the surprise was that it was happening in Nevada.

Who knew that the desert state, one that I’d always dismissed as inconsequential, was so forward-looking, so adventuresome as to screw a legitimate licence plate onto the front of an autonomously driven heavy truck?

Who knew that Nevada would — or could — lead the way?

But its urbane and articulate Governor, Brian Sandoval, is clearly committed to pushing this technology forward, and he and his state have helped accomplish what once seemed almost certain to be a European breakthrough.

After attending last summer’s introduction of the Mercedes-Benz Future Truck 2025 in Magdeburg, Germany, I wasn’t alone amongst my fellow journalists in making an assumption: we’d see an autonomous truck on German or Dutch or maybe Swedish roads long before — like decades — we saw it here. I never heard an opposing view. After all, so much of the highest high-tech gizmology has been developed over there in recent years. Like others, I presumed Europeans simply had a bigger taste for such things. (See my Lockwood Report from last July 16 here.)

Daimler Trucks chief Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard said at the time that it would take a while to deal with the social and regulatory hurdles standing in the way of a self-driving Actros, none of which would be small, but he predicted it would be a done deal by 2025. He never mentioned the possibility that it might not happen in Europe.

But there he was congratulating Governor Sandoval for his foresight at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, giving us a sneak peak at the very spiffy Freightliner Inspiration before the two men drove it off into the late afternoon Nevada sun. Legally. The high drama of the truck’s formal introduction at the Hoover Dam came later that evening.

SO AN AUTONOMOUS TRUCK is registered and has actually been issued a licence plate, the first such commercial vehicle able to operate legally on an open public highway in the United States. In fact it’s the first self-driving vehicle of any kind, with four wheels or 18, to gain such a licence anywhere in the world as far as I can tell. Make that two, because Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) built two of them, and both are licensed in Nevada.

For all the attention being paid to autonomous cars these days, it’s sweetly ironic that a truck broke the ice.