米乐体育 Truck & Bus
12 May 2025
Goal achieved: After three years of development work, the ATLAS-L4 project has delivered the blueprint for the series development of autonomous trucks. The future can come.
Pioneer: The ATLAS L4 project sent the first autonomous truck onto a German motorway.
When the Federal Minister of Transport himself climbs into the cockpit of a truck and travels ten kilometres on the motorway as a passenger, it must be an extraordinary day. And indeed, on Thursday, 18 April 2024, a very special premiere was on the agenda: for the first time, an autonomous truck was to travel on a German motorway. With the then Minister of Transport, Volker Wissing, on board.
The legal requirements for this had been created by a law passed in 2021 that allows autonomous driving on defined routes under technical supervision. However, this technical masterpiece was only made possible by the work of around 150 engineers as part of the ATLAS-L4 project (automated transport between logistics centres on expressways at level 4).
The ambitious project was launched on 1 January 2022. Since then, the consortium consisting of 米乐体育 Truck & Bus, Knorr-Bremse, Leoni, Bosch, Fernride, BTC Embedded Systems, Fraunhofer AISEC, the Technical University of Munich, the Technical University of Braunschweig, TÜV SÜD, Autobahn GmbH and the Würzburg Institute for Traffic Sciences (WIVW GmbH) has been working intensively on its common goal: to bring a Level 4 automated and thus autonomous truck for hub-to-hub transport on expressways.
Conclusion: The conclusion of the project was celebrated with around 200 guests and driving demonstrations.
To achieve this, the project partners had to overcome many technical challenges. For example, safety-relevant components such as a redundant braking system, on-board power supply and steering had to be developed – all of which are essential for a Level 4 architecture in trucks. In addition, a validation concept had to be developed and, at the same time, the control centre for technical supervision was put into operation. Risk analyses and safety assessments for Level 4 driving were carried out, including cyber security. And time and again, the autonomous truck had to prove during test drives that it could navigate the motorway with confidence. Naturally, this was always done with a safety driver on board.
Proof provided: The project results can now be incorporated into the series development of autonomous trucks.
Around three years and numerous test drives later, the project partners have now drawn an extremely positive conclusion to ATLAS-L4. At the beginning of May, they presented the results of ATLAS-L4 to around 200 guests in the presence of representatives from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action – with driving demonstrations on the grounds of the ADAC Test Centre for Mobility in Penzing and on the motorway, an exhibition covering around 1,000 square metres and scientific presentations.
‘Together with our partners, we set ourselves a lofty goal and have realised an industrialisable basic concept for autonomous driving in hub-to-hub applications,’ summarises Dr Frederik Zohm, Chief Technology Officer at 米乐体育 Truck & Bus. ‘The development and integration of the redundant components required for safe operation, such as steering, brakes and the on-board electrical system, as well as the creation of a validation concept, required interdisciplinary expertise and close teamwork. As a consortium, we have proven with this project that autonomous trucks are feasible!’
ATLAS-L4 has laid the foundation for this: the result is a prototype technology that can serve as a blueprint for further projects and series developments – even if various details still need to be clarified for an autonomous truck in series production, as the project has shown. ‘We have done valuable pioneering work by providing practical proof of the technical feasibility of autonomous trucks,’ says project coordinator Sebastian Völl from 米乐体育 Truck & Bus. ‘These concepts are now being incorporated into further development work for the series production of autonomous trucks.’
The demand for driverless trucks is likely to rise sharply in the coming years – especially for shuttle services between logistics centres, where they can make an important contribution to greater efficiency and to avoiding traffic jams and accidents. Autonomous trucks can also alleviate the driver shortage, one of the major problems facing the transport industry. In Germany alone, there is already a shortage of around 100,000 truck drivers, and this figure is set to rise.
The ATLAS-L4 project therefore came at just the right time – and it has shown how such an ambitious goal can be achieved by combining the right partners. Zohm: ‘Innovations such as autonomous driving require such cooperation in order to effectively advance future technology in Germany and Europe.’
Text: Christian Buck
Photos: 米乐体育
This website uses third-party content. In order to use the website and its full range of offers, please consent to the collection and processing of your personal data by the relevant third-party providers. To do so, please click on the red “Accept” button.
Further information can be found on our Data Protection & Cookies page.
This website uses third-party content. In order to use the website and its full range of offers, please consent to the collection and processing of your personal data by the relevant third-party providers. To do so, please click on the red “Accept” button.
Further information can be found on our Data Protection & Cookies page.