Design Funnel - Mercedes Benz Semi-Trucks Project

In the Mercedes Benz project, my team and I explored many different areas in regards to semi-trucks and autonomous vehicles before landing on our final design. We would explore a certain idea that we had only to realize that it wasn’t the right direction for us to head in after conversations with experts in the industry, sketching sessions, and doing research online.

Some early areas we explored were...

- Fully autonomous vs semi-autonomous trucks —Early on in the project we wanted to explore what the world would look like for a fully autonomous semi-truck that would navigate the roads without any human drivers in the cab. However, it became clear to us through our research that semi-trucks will be one of the last vehicles to drive completely autonomous due to the amount of work truck drivers do besides driving the truck on the road. We decided if would be beneficial to focus on semi-autonomous trucks and design in the context of 2025 and the Mercedes Benz truck of the future.

- Truck inspections —We then began to focus on one of the problems we heard a lot while talking to drivers. Truck inspections take forever! Drivers are required by the DOT to do safety inspections of their truck and load before driving each load. Our goal by exploring truck inspections was to see if we could find a way to make the process of inspecting the truck easier before you go out on the road. We ideated how we could automate this process. However, we eventually discovered there were already technologies trying to automate this time consuming process by adding sensors all over the truck. We decided to move on.

- Transfer of control from driver to autonomous technology — Finally, we shifted our focus towards the safety issues involved with a semi-truck that can drive autonomously in optimal road conditions yet still needs a human when exiting the highway or in rough weather and road conditions (snow, heavy rain, construction, etc).