No hands! Taking a ride in the self-driving truck of the future

Among our greatest pet peeves, when it comes to driving, is the phrase, “Look, ma: No hands!" As we see it, hands and eyes belong firmly on the steering wheel and road ahead, respectively.

Now, imagine if those words came from a tractor-trailer driver barreling down the road in your direction at 75 mph. What if the semi truck of the future could drive itself?

If Freightliner has it their way, the future of truck driving is autonomous, and it might not include a truck driver behind the wheel at all. That’s the idea behind the Freightliner Inspiration, a concept truck shown for the first time on a closed course just outside Las Vegas.

Why introduce a new semi truck in Las Vegas? Sin City is located in the state of Nevada, a state that is kind to autonomous vehicle testing and has awarded Freightliner a license plate to put the Inspiration on the road.

With the goals of improving logistics and fuel economy top of mind, Freightliner wants to disrupt the shipping chain as we know it today. The company cites efficiency and safety as top priorities for its biggest customers, and wanted to design a future vehicle that made trucking easier and more economical.

Honestly, though, Freightliner: You had us at “self-driving truck.”

Well, almost “self-driving.” The Inspiration is classified as a level-three, semi-autonomous vehicle, which means that it requires a seated operator at all times to monitor vehicle dynamics. (Even Nevada isn’t ready for a totally autonomous truck yet.)

From the first glance, the Inspiration looks much like an ordinary tractor trailer. The cab sits over the engine, a trailer is attached, and the shape is rectangular and boxy. In your rear-view mirror, you could easily mistake it for a run-of-the-mill semi making a run along the New Jersey Turnpike. That’s because the Inspiration is based on the existing platform of the Cascadia production truck, but adds technology and refinement to completely alter its character.

The centerpiece of the Inspiration, and the brains behind the operation, is Highway Pilot: a semi-autonomous driving system that utilizes an onboard navigation system and satellite mapping tools to plot a steady, hands-free course. With Highway Pilot engaged, and a destination entered, the driver can safely take his or her hands off the steering wheel and let the truck steer, accelerate, and brake for itself.

The system does its best to compensate for natural elements, like strong winds, and will only disengage under circumstances of impending danger or lack of knowledge about the roads ahead. A nifty GPS-based tool, which can be updated periodically at Freightliner dealers, is aware of elevation changes and sharp curves, and it prevents the truck from making mistakes.

In conjunction with Freightliner’s “Detroit Assurance" suite of technologies, which include lane-keep assist and adaptive cruise control—some of which are available on competitive tractor-trailers—Highway Pilot takes everything we know about semiautonomous vehicles and brings them to the forefront. Windshield and grille-mounted radar cameras and sensors help the Inspiration see the way forward.

Freightliner doesn’t plan to replace all the trucks on the road with Inspiration and its ilk—at least, not right away.

“The human brain is still the most amazing computer,” Martin Daum, CEO of Daimler Trucks North America, which is responsible for the Freightliner brand, told us.