Just imagine a future that is being designed today for heavy duty freight truck.

Imagine our highways being plied by self-drive trucks without the risk of truck-induced freak accidents, improperly latched containers, dangers associated with ‘Blind Spots’ and the bottom-line disruptive impact of contaminated or adulterated diesel and so on and so forth.

Well, autonomous or driver-less truck is no longer hot news in places like United States and Europe. Infact, in recent times, the White House had invested heavily in a number of partnerships designed to hasten the process of the emergence of commercially viable autonomous trucks. Series of tests are presently ongoing in this regard.

A Turkish product Design Student, Kaan Karagoz, is however taking this feverish quest a notch higher with his amazing concept of a futuristic Volvo Autonomous Electric Carrier.

His concept, tagged Volvo Autonomous Carrier, is a wonder-on-wheel 8×8 wheelbase cargo vehicle powered by electric engine. The Carrier can be loaded from all sides of the trailer and has no blind spots with the assistance of computer sensors. Maneuverability, limitless transportation time and safe braking ability also makes the truck unique and functional.

The MINDSET with which he came about this amazing design is captured in his own very words below:

“Did you watch LOGAN movie? If you have seen (it), (then) you have seen autonomous carriers travelling in traffic. After I left the movie, there was only one thing in my mind; except for the sad story about Superhero of my childhood. Is it really the case that (about) unmanned freight transport in the future; what do designers think about it before?

When I got home, I sat down and started studying trucks. I learned the tricks very well at the time of the internship. Most of the needs of truck drivers; there are different expectations than drivers using other vehicles. What advantages do we have when we build a completely unmanned carrier?

The boundaries of truck dimensions that can lead to European Standards are set. Within this limit we can use the area used by the driver to make the vehicle more efficient and more functional. To be able to decide on this, I had to understand the trouble experienced by the truck users. I had to find the problems that they did not realize, but that were caused by the driver I could notice.

• Vehicles with 2 parts are causing difficulties in difficult road conditions. Trailer brakes sometimes lock the brake and cause the driver to lose control of the vehicle. The number of accidents caused by drivers who have lost control of the car is too much. The fact that trailer tyres do not turn around shortens the tyre life. This increases the cost.
• The vehicle in front of trailer is deigned like a house to meet all the needs of the driver. But it also affect the exterior design of the vehicle which causes it to have a bad aerodynamics. This also affects fuel, affects balance and comfort.

In many cases, loading arrears are too tight for trucks to move freely. Usually factories and logistics companies have different sized areas for loading purposes and this causes some problems with loading process. Sometimes, loading of the dorsal is from behind and sometimes from sides. This causes confusion with the track of the load. Confusion means waste of time and there is a well-known equation: Time=Money

• Because of the driver’s point of view, there are blind spots in the vehicle that will create danger in the traffic. If we cancel the drive, we will solve the serious problem
• The truck can travel for a limited period of time during the day, because there is a limitation for the time of truck drivers to be on the wheel daily. This causes the cargo to wait on the road
• I think the biggest problem in designing autonomous tool is this: People are afraid of programmed robotic machines. It is so wrong that the design language makes it more frightening and aggressive when the vehicle which is already moving without humanity is scary enough. On the contrary it has to be more intimate.

‘Volvo Autonomous Carrier’ is designed to solve all of the problems. Thank you”.

See images of the Truck below:

 

Image Credit: MotiveZine.com

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