Volvo has invested heavily in the development of autonomous trucks, and has experimented with different solutions and formats in recent years: the most recent, Vera, is already used to transport goods in the port terminal area of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Unlike previous developments, on an aesthetic level the changes in Vera are evident: the different attitude of the vehicle has "finally" overcome the need to give it a shape similar to the current one. In other words, no passenger, no passenger cabin: easy.
Ithe resulting look is rather slender although muscular: Vera looks like a sports car of the kind that raced at Le Mans. The use will be extended, Volvo says, in ferry logistics, and these autonomous vehicles will travel a precise route to transport short-haul containers in a continuous flow.
It is an intelligent choice, because it allows the immediate use of ready-made technologies: while the traffic of modern cities still represents a stumbling block for the complete adaptation of these vehicles, the limited areas and relatively little traffic (especially with few sudden obstacles and few unknowns, I add) they are ideal. I am also thinking of hospitals, industrial parks, scientific campuses, etc.
Once fully operational, the entire fleet of Vera vehicles will be controlled by a human operator in a sort of control tower: very low noise levels, zero emissions, great future in logistics.
“Now we have the opportunity to deploy Vera in an ideal scenario, so we can refine it even more quickly to develop its full potential in similar areas,” says the Mikael Karlsson, Vice President of Volvo's Autonomous Vehicles Division in a Press release.
