Scania is partnering with HAVI Supply Chain for a new trial that sees an autonomous truck being used in the transport of commercial goods.

The pilot, carried out under regular traffic conditions, aims to learn about the effectiveness of autonomous truck transport as part of hub-to-hub operations.

The pilot, a first for Europe, will see the autonomous truck drive between Södertälje and Jönköping in Sweden, a three-hour journey of around 300km. The route forms part of a longer logistics flow for HAVI, with the first and last mile being handled by manually driven vehicles.

The pilot is a first step in showing how autonomous trucks can form part of a viable hub-to-hub logistics flow and allows Scania and HAVI to evaluate the effectiveness of the technology in their operations.

“We know the transport system will change in the coming years and that the industry faces challenges of driver shortages and diminishing margins, so the transformation process towards autonomous technology needs to start happening right away,” said Robert Melin Mori, Scania project manager in charge of the initiative.

“We need to learn about autonomous operations now so that we are ready as soon as the technology is ready. We believe this pilot will be a hugely important stepping stone.”