scania AXL, a fully autonomous concept truck without a cabin

scania — a world-leading provider of transport solutions including trucks and buses — has unveiled the scania AXL, a fully autonomous, cabin-less concept truck. the development of the heavy self-driving vehicle features the company’s modular system at the center of the design.

‘with the scania AXL concept truck, we are taking a significant step towards the smart transport systems of the future, where self-driving vehicles will play a natural part,’ comments scania’s president and CEO henrik henriksson. ‘we continue to build and pilot concepts to demonstrate what we can do with the technology that is available today.’

images courtesy of scania

today, industries are looking to streamline transport assignments and make them more sustainable, therefore considering self-driving vehicles. mines and large closed construction sites are examples of environments that are favorable for these type of vehicles since they are well-controlled locations. the scania AXL is perfect for this as it is steered and monitored by an intelligent control environment. in mines, for example, the autonomous operations are facilitated by a logistics system that tells the vehicle how it should perform.

‘we already have self-driving trucks in customer operations. however so far, they have been with room for a safety driver who can intervene if necessary. scania AXL does not have a cab and that changes the game significantly,’ says claes erixon, head of research and development at scania. ‘the development in self-driving vehicles has made great strides in the past years. we still don’t have all the answers, but through concept vehicles like scania AXL we break new ground and continue to learn at great speed.’

the robust and powerful features and design behind the scania AXL match the tougher environments and mines in large construction sites. a new intelligent front module replaces the tradition cab, but even without a cabin, the concept is easily recognizable as one of the brand’s.

project info:

name: scania AXL

produced by: scania

state of the project: concept