Volvo VNL

Of floor mops, M&M coatings … and battery packs 

What do coatings for M&M chocolate candies, O-Cedar floor mops and battery packs for electric trucks have in common?

All three come from German industrial conglomerate Freudenberg Group. The company operates many other seemingly incongruous businesses from filtration to home cleaning products.

A history of handoffs

Freudenberg’s battery business is an appropriate Truck Tech topic. But not as tasty than M&Ms, for which it makes the hard shell coatings through its Capol business unit. 

The...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/of-floor-mops-mm-coatings-and-battery-packs

Could the flux capacitor solve hydrogen storage on Class 8 trucks?

The garbage-gulping Mr. Fusion from “Back to the Future” was pure fiction, but the flux capacitor that powered Doc Brown’s flying DeLorean is real. NASA made it. The space agency licenses it. And hydrogen-powered trucks might benefit from it.

A license like no other

“I actually have a license for the flux capacitor. How many people can say that?” Michael Kramer, founder of startup Novadev, told me. “The only one who’s made a lot of money on this program so far is my patent attorney. He got paid a...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/could-the-flux-capacitor-solve-hydrogen-storage-on-class-8-trucks

Freightliner adds nifty changes to fifth-generation Cascadia

YPSILANTI, Mich. – The fifth-generation Freightliner Cascadia from Daimler Truck North America features some nifty changes to the market-leading Class 8 over-the-road truck.

But a major makeover, it isn’t. 

Coming to market about five years after the current-generation truck – called the New Cascadia when introduced in 2019 – the fifth-gen tractor is scheduled for production in mid-2025. It claims a modest 1.9% improvement in fuel efficiency over the current model, part of a lineage that covers...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightliner-adds-nifty-changes-to-fifth-generation-cascadia

IAA 2024: Daum’s legacy – a stand-alone Daimler Truck

The Sept. 4 news release announcing Martin Daum’s successor as Chair and CEO of Daimler Truck didn’t precisely say the legendary trucking industry executive was retiring.

This week at the IAA Transportation truck exhibition, Daum definitively answered the question. He’s done at the end of the year.

The Sept. 4 news release announcing Martin Daum’s successor as Chair and CEO of Daimler Truck didn’t precisely say the legendary trucking industry executive was retiring.

This week at the IAA...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/iaa-2024-daums-legacy-a-stand-alone-daimler-truck

Sitetracker: Speeding electric truck charging behind the scenes

Announcements of new charging depots for electric trucks seem to come almost weekly. Some are more promises than ready-to-go power. Sitetracker, a SaaS business rooted in telecommunications, is providing a cloud-based backbone to move things along.

Sitetracker has been around since 2008. In four rounds of fundraising, it has brought in $183 million, including $66 million in a Series D round in 2022. The Montclair, New Jersey-based company has doubled its head count while seizing opportunities in...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/sitetracker-speeding-electric-truck-charging-behind-the-scenes

Could autonomous trucks help save the planet?

It’s understood that autonomous trucks boost fuel efficiency compared to human-driven big rigs.

But the potential energy efficiency gains could be far greater.

In a white paper released Tuesday, Aurora Innovation looked at immediate, medium- and longer-term opportunities and found some obvious and not-so-obvious savings.

The headline factoid: Autonomous trucks could achieve 13%-32% net energy efficiency improvement per loaded mile compared to human-driven miles. It is a lot to digest. 

Aurora makes...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/could-autonomous-trucks-help-save-the-planet

SEC smackdown and SuperTruck news overwhelm convention dispatches  

The annual Work Truck Week and American Trucking Associations Maintenance & Technology Council pile on stakeholder-specific dispatches each March. But this week bigger stories originated outside the convention halls in Indianapolis and New Orleans.

The Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington is as good a starting point as any.

Lordstown Motors gets an SEC comeuppance

Nearly three years after Hindenberg Research set its sights on Lordstown Motors Corp., accusing the former special purpose...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/sec-smackdown-and-supertruck-news-overwhelm-convention-dispatches

Volvo, DHL get ready for hub-to-hub autonomous trucking

Volvo VNL autonomous prototype pulling yellow DHL trailer

Volvo Autonomous Solutions (VAS) will work with logistics provider DHL Supply Chain on hub-to-hub autonomous freight hauling, joining a rush of fleets and autonomous startups envisioning the future road without human drivers.

The key detail missing is when the program starts. VAS said that would come later.

Volvo VNL long-haul sleeper cabs are being retrofitted by Aurora Innovation with the Aurora Driver, an autonomous system the startup is testing on passenger cars and trucks. Aurora also is...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/volvo-dhl-get-ready-for-hub-to-hub-autonomous-trucking

This autonomous ride-along was boring — and that’s a good thing

PALMER, Texas — Successful autonomous trucking runs have nothing in common. As in nothing happens that the robot driver cannot handle as intended. That includes knowing to slow down for the man who occasionally walks his dog along Interstate 45 south of Dallas.

Aurora Innovation’s autonomous trucks have seen the man and the dog before and the robot Aurora Driver systems learned to brake almost imperceptibly, obeying the Texas law to shift one lane to the left or reduce its speed by 20 mph.

“The...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/this-autonomous-ride-along-was-boring-and-thats-a-good-thing

Truck Talk: Trailer troubles edition

This week, we’re looking at how trailer industry leader Hyundai Translead is coping with a raft of supply chain issues preventing it from taking full advantage of demand, mixed signals on the Tesla Semi and some other electrification buzz.

An imperfect storm

You might think that trailer makers would be thrilled with month after month of strong orders. A bigger backlog is good, right? That’s not necessarily the case. We talked this week with Sean Kenney, chief sales officer at Hyundai Translead,...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/truck-talk-trailer-troubles-edition