Is there such a thing as too much technology? Will Shiers gets behind the wheel of a mirrorless new Mercedes-Benz Actros.

I reckon the word ‘intuitive‘ is used far too liberally for describing how user-friendly a truck is. To determine whether or not a new cab is intuitive, I tend to picture my 80-year-old mother at the wheel. Would she be able to start it up and get it out of the yard without too many problems? In the case of the new Mercedes-Benz Actros – absolutely not! In fact, sat in front of the multi-function steering wheel and two tablets, which together form the basis of the new Multimedia Cockpit, I‘m struggling to make head or tail of it myself.

The latest Actros may not look any different from the outside, but make no mistake, this is definitely a new vehicle. Mercedes-Benz claims it features 100 innovations, including four world firsts, such as the dashboard that is currently baffling me. “It‘s very intuitive,” says the instructor in the passenger seat of the 1853 LS I‘m about to drive on Spanish roads, “and we‘ve had it in Mercedes-Benz cars for a few years.” That‘s all very well, but it doesn‘t help me as I drive a 20-year-old Toyota Land Cruiser! Fortunately, before we set off on our 150km drive, he spends 30 minutes showing me the basics and teaching me how to navigate the numerous menus. Despite being daunting at first, it gradually starts to make sense. There is a pair of finger navigation pads on the steering wheel: the left one controlling the screen directly in front of me, and the right one working the screen to my right (I‘m in a left-hand-drive truck). Or I can choose to bypass the steering wheel and use the touchscreens instead.

To give you an idea of how extensive these menus are, I find one dedicated solely to internal lighting. Here, I can opt for various colour lights, and increase their intensity by sliding my finger across the screen. I can even arrange for a simulated sunrise to wake me up in the morning. There‘s no question that Mercedes-Benz has raised the bar with this interior. As I‘m playing with the menus, it occurs to me that they could be quite a distraction. After all, what‘s the difference between using Spotify via Apple CarPlay on the truck‘s screen or on a mobile phone? As far as I can tell, the key difference is that one is legal in Europe and the other one isn‘t… Of all the innovations on this truck, undoubtedly the one that has attracted the most industry attention is MirrorCam. Instead of external mirrors, the truck features a pair of cameras, mounted high above the doors. They feed to two screens, located on the internal A-pillars. The system has been legal in Europe for more than two years, but Mercedes-Benz is the first to bring it to market. I know exactly what you‘re thinking – what a waste of time and money; after all, there‘s nothing wrong with conventional mirrors, right? This is what I think, too, at least until I start to drive.

The first thing I notice is the lack of a blind spot on the approach to roundabouts. With no external mirrors blocking my view, I don‘t have to lean forwards to see around them. Also, a quick glance in the driver‘s screen while halfway around I reckon the word ‘intuitive‘ is used far too liberally for describing how user-friendly a truck is. To determine whether or not a new cab is intuitive, I tend to picture my 80-year-old mother at the wheel. Would she be able to start it up and get it out of the yard without too many problems? In the case of the new Mercedes-Benz Actros – absolutely not! In fact, sat in front of the multi-function steering wheel and two tablets, which together form the basis of the new Multimedia Cockpit, I‘m struggling to make head or tail of it myself.

The latest Actros may not look any different from the outside, but make no mistake, this is definitely a new vehicle. Mercedes-Benz claims it features 100 innovations, including four world firsts, such as the dashboard that is currently baffling me. “It‘s very intuitive,” says the instructor in the passenger seat of the 1853 LS I‘m about to drive on Spanish roads, “and we‘ve had it in Mercedes-Benz cars for a few years.” That‘s all very well, but it doesn‘t help me as I drive a 20-year-old Toyota Land Cruiser! Fortunately, before we set off on our 150km drive, he spends 30 minutes showing me the basics and teaching me how to navigate the numerous menus. Despite being daunting at first, it gradually starts to make sense. There is a pair of finger navigation pads on the steering wheel: the left one controlling the screen directly in front of me, and the right one working the screen to my right (I‘m in a left-hand-drive truck). Or I can choose to bypass the steering wheel and use the touchscreens instead.

Photo: Your granny might struggle with the ‘intuitive‘ sales pitch, but your nine-year-old wouldn‘t … after all, they‘re the ‘horses‘ for future courses.

To give you an idea of how extensive these menus are, I find one dedicated solely to internal lighting. Here, I can opt for various colour lights, and increase their intensity by sliding my finger across the screen. I can even arrange for a simulated sunrise to wake me up in the morning. There‘s no question that Mercedes-Benz has raised the bar with this interior. As I‘m playing with the menus, it occurs to me that they could be quite a distraction. After all, what‘s the difference between using Spotify via Apple CarPlay on the truck‘s screen or on a mobile phone? As far as I can tell, the key difference is that one is legal in Europe and the other one isn‘t… Of all the innovations on this truck, undoubtedly the one that has attracted the most industry attention is MirrorCam. Instead of external mirrors, the truck features a pair of cameras, mounted high above the doors. They feed to two screens, located on the internal A-pillars. The system has been legal in Europe for more than two years, but Mercedes-Benz is the first to bring it to market.

I know exactly what you‘re thinking – what a waste of time and money; after all, there‘s nothing wrong with conventional mirrors, right? This is what I think, too, at least until I start to drive. The first thing I notice is the lack of a blind spot on the approach to roundabouts. With no external mirrors blocking my view, I don‘t have to lean forwards to see around them. Also, a quick glance in the driver‘s screen while halfway around the roundabout reveals that the back of the trailer is located dead centre of the mirror. It‘s a vastly better view than I would have with glass. Surprisingly, looking at screens feels entirely natural, and takes no more than a minute or two to get used to. Mercedes- Benz has found a solution to a problem that I didn‘t even know I had! I join the motorway, and a few minutes into the drive the instructor asks me to slowly drift into the hard shoulder. It goes against the grain but I do what he says, or at least attempt to anyway. In reality, what happens is that the Active Lane Assist thinks I‘ve fallen asleep, sounds an alarm to wake me and brings me safely back into the lane. It‘s a great system, and clearly has life-saving potential.

I‘m using GPS-based Predictive Powertrain Control (PPC), and have set the cruise control at 85kph, with a 5kph tolerance. As a result, the EcoRoll engages frequently – sometimes even on inclines. While this driving style is likely to piss off the traffic behind, it has the potential to save a fortune at the pumps. The new Actros is the first truck to feature level two autonomy, which Mercedes-Benz has christened Active Drive Assist. It not only brakes and accelerates for me, but steers too, keeping the truck within my chosen lane. Putting it to the test I take my hands off the wheel, and grab my notebook and pen. But, before I can write any notes, an alarm sounds that warns me to put my hands back on the wheel. So, instead, I gently grip it while the truck steers for me; which is totally counterintuitive and pretty much pointless. I don‘t like the way that it meanders slightly either, which makes it feel like the tyre pressures are low.

At one point I‘m overtaken by a tanker, which sits dangerously close to my lane. Normally, in such a situation, I would instinctively move to my right to aid its safe passage … instead, my truck wanders worryingly close to it. Had it had mirrors, I think we might have touched. I persevere with the system for a while longer, but the Spanish white lines are of a poor quality and – on several occasions – an alarm sounds to warn me that the system can‘t see them and has deactivated, handing control back to me. I can‘t see the system behaving any better in the United Kingdom – and having had a brief drive in New Zealand, I reckon it will struggle there too. At one point the road passes through a tunnel and, as the truck enters it, the GPS tells the ventilation system to go into recirculating mode, so keeping traffic fumes out of the cab. It‘s one of numerous clever functions of this truck that the average driver is likely to be blissfully unaware of. In the tunnel, I take the opportunity to study the MirrorCam screen and discover it to be bright, giving a vastly better view than conventional glass. The screens have horizontal lines on them. One depicts the end of the trailer and is used as a reversing aid. The others tell me when it‘s safe to pull in after overtaking slower-moving traffic. Mercedes-Benz claims that MirrorCam makes the Actros between 1.3 and 1.5% more fuel efficient. It certainly makes it quieter, with significantly less wind noise.

We‘re leaving the motorway now, and heading for the hills outside Barcelona. Mercedes-Benz has offered its PPC system for several years, but whereas it previously only worked on motorways, the latest version also includes rural mapping. It‘s an incredibly clever bit of kit, as it both reads the road ahead and knows what speed to travel. On the approach to every corner a message appears in the central screen, informing me of what speed the truck will take it. For instance, on one particularly sharp bend, it announces that it will be slowing down to 19kph in 200m. It sounds ridiculously slow but, sure enough, when I get there, it feels like exactly the right speed to tackle the hairpin. Another smart function is Traffic Sign Assist, which reads road signs and displays them on the central display. It‘s particularly useful for notifying the driver of temporary speed limits, which wouldn‘t be picked up by the truck‘s GPS mapping. That‘s all very well but, as all you Cannonball Run fans will know, there‘s nothing to stop girls in Lamborghinis from defacing speed limit signs! So, having spent a couple of hours behind the wheel, do I reckon the new Actros is intuitive enough for my mum to drive? Certainly not! After all, this is a woman with stickers on the outside of her iPhone case displaying all her favourite phone numbers! However, in contrast, I reckon my nine-yearold daughter would get to grips with the Multimedia Cockpit within seconds. That point is worth considering. Europe (as with most of the world – Ed.) has a major shortage of fresh blood coming into the industry, and I reckon the new Actros has just the right level of technology to help make the truck-driving profession slightly more appealing to a younger generation.

MirrorCam and the way ahead
Although Mercedes-Benz is the first to market with a mirrorless system, it‘s safe to say that it won‘t be the last. The system not only works incredibly well, it also offers a significant fuel economy benefit. It‘s my prediction the other major truck makers will follow. I am told that MirrorCam works on 25.25m Scandinavian outfits so, in theory, there is no reason why it can‘t work in New Zealand, too. As yet it hasn‘t been tested on anything longer.

Safety
New Actros has a host of safety features, including Active Brake Assist 5. Unlike earlier versions, it reacts to static pedestrians, which are apparently a growing problem. They tend to walk out into the road while concentrating on their phones, and then freeze at the shock of seeing a truck bearing down on them. If needed, the system brings the truck to a complete halt – Mercedes-Benz stresses, however, that the driver must always maintain full control. Sideguard Assist, which minimises the risk of a collision with a vulnerable road user on the passenger side, has been enhanced. It is currently unavailable in right-hand-drive vehicles.