My daily driver is a mirror cam Mercedes Actros.
Acceleration and braking:- It has active cruise control with PPC, so when that’s engaged it can accelerate from 1 mph* to 56 on its own, according to traffic in front of it and slow down to a stop all on its own. I will generally intervene to start slowing down earlier to make sure it is smoother, but, in the right circumstances, it could do it itself. The PPC means that it can negotiate roundabouts and bends at a safe speed without intervention, depending on if you are lucky with traffic.
Steering:- nothing more than a lane departure warning, no intervention made by the truck.
Gears:- Auto obviously, I very rarely have to intervene.
I find all this makes my life easier (obviously I don’t feel any threat of being redundant yet), I don’t have a wide experience of other trucks, what can they do?
*Once after a very brief stop it started all by itself, but usually I have to initiate it moving.
Call me old fashioned but another way of looking at what you have pointed out is that it’s another example if the almost complete dumbing down of the job, more ''skills ’ that were once needed, taken away, means even bigger incompetent idiots than now are able to ''drive ’ a truck.
Me…I like to drive the truck not the truck drive me, if and when I get an abortion like that, I’ll more than likely knock it all off to ‘‘manual mode’’ …no doubt somebody will come back with the.usual…‘‘Well if you have an accident, and they see it’s all been by passesd’’…, well until it becomes ABSOLUTE law to have all that electronic crap active,.I’ll do things my own way thanks.
No doubt many will welcome and embrace this stuff calling it progress and use the old inevitable argument ''Would you rather go back to ######## (fill in the bkank ranging from horses to manual gearboxes ) but it is personally not for me, maybe I’m far too ■■■■ old school (or even just old )
All this crap does is further deskill the industry.
When the smelly stuff hits the fan the people who designed manufactured and bought all this tat won’t be held responsible, it will always be the poor sap sat behind the wheel, like Robroy whilst i’m responsible for the piggin vehicle i’m driving it.
Have a poke nose in the drivers manual re emergency braking, there will be weasel words reminding the bod behind the wheel who’s responsible.
I can’t turn AEBS off and nor would i wish to (inviting all sorts of trouble in the event of something happening even if you and your vehicle were completely blameless) but i bet i’m not the only one who’s has to modify their driving to stop the vehicle applying the brakes for no good reason, ie by having to exaggerate chicane type situations where if you followed the better smoother line previous experience there has already taught you the vehicle will apply the brakes sharply.
I use cruise control because tend to run 3 or 4 clicks below max speed but thankfully on mine can cancel eco cruise, i’ll decide what speed the vehicle is travelling at bearing in mind i know what’s going on all around not just what gps/topography programming suggests if i want to crest the motorway rise at 54 instead of the machine deciding 50 is preferable then i’ll soddin well do so because i know what the traffic situation is in front alongside and behind.
Mirror cams er no ta, yes they’re coming so we’re all told on these pages but this bod isn’t going to be driving one so fitted, and as for the vehicle deciding the correct speed a corner/roundabout can be taken at, get in the sea.
Driving is like many other things, no matter how many years and millions of miles one has the good driver is constantly refining their skill set, use it or lose it.
I sit at 52/53 by choice* so I only use cruise control for that mainly now. I don’t use the adaptive one as generally I have no use for it.
*We run gas trucks, you can’t just fill them anywhere, so looking after gas is important. The few mph gives me much better fuel economy over those who floor it to get a few mins further up the road. It’s all time I get back when they run out if gas and wait for recovery or have to spend those few minutes getting the tank vented and filled more. Tortoise and the hare…
I really do hate AEBS, the ■■■■ thing has a fright going around a bend and it sees maybe a lamp post or a parked car, then decides to apply the brakes, I nearly crap myself when this happens as I’m normally singing along to a great song…
I do use cruise on the motorway and then wonder why I’m following the lorry infront doing 50mph when I was doing 55mph and could have overtaken, I forget the ■■■■ thing slows down, now I have to wait for a gap in the traffic that wasn’t there until I needed to overtake.
I’ve tried leaving it in manual, but it has a habit of changing back to auto/eco on its own, its rather annoying when you’re going up a hill and it decides the best option is eco mode and then it struggles to find a gear suitable.
Then going down hill it decides oh I’ll now go into neutral to save fuel, so now you have to brake instead of using the engine to stay at the same speed!!
Only in lorry driving do you find people actively wanting to make their job harder than it needs to be and literally begging the boss to buy kit that means they have to work harder for the same money.
stu675:
Can you all please tell me what trucks you are referring to?
Volvo for me
That’s good to know you can choose adaptive or fixed cruise control. They both have benefits, but like Stephen I also hate when it subtly reduces speed. If only it gave a warning sound when it does it, like when cruise drops out completely. In a Merc, and I think Dafs, you can’t choose cruise without adaptive.
Stephenjp:
I really do hate AEBS, the ■■■■ thing has a fright going around a bend and it sees maybe a lamp post or a parked car, then decides to apply the brakes, I nearly crap myself when this happens as I’m normally singing along to a great song…
Must be that Mercedes have developed it well enough, it almost never actually brakes, just gives a visual or audible watning
I do use cruise on the motorway and then wonder why I’m following the lorry infront doing 50mph when I was doing 55mph and could have overtaken, I forget the ■■■■ thing slows down, now I have to wait for a gap in the traffic that wasn’t there until I needed to overtake.
absolutely! [emoji23]
I’ve tried leaving it in manual, but it has a habit of changing back to auto/eco on its own, its rather annoying when you’re going up a hill and it decides the best option is eco mode and then it struggles to find a gear suitable.
Again with the Merc, never a problem with the auto being in the best gear (unless the driver has chosen the wrong direction! [emoji2357])
Then going down hill it decides oh I’ll now go into neutral to save fuel, so now you have to brake instead of using the engine to stay at the same speed!!
I love neutral, can go faster, get home sooner, engine brake control is always available.
Absolutely. The human arse is a marvellous creation as apart from the obvious uses it tells you a myriad of other things. I still stand by what I said, if you can’t detect a drop in revs you simply aren’t paying enough attention.
Conor:
Only in lorry driving do you find people actively wanting to make their job harder than it needs to be and literally begging the boss to buy kit that means they have to work harder for the same money.
Nah, crash boxes, made the job harder, 2 30x20 sheets and a fly, or a full tilt trailer strip out made the job harder, sprung suspension made the job harder, then along came the likes of autoboxes tautliiners or Euroliners to replace tilts, air suspension which actually DID make things easier and were improvements.
Personally I don’t find staying the right side of a white line, or slowing down for a roundabout, or judging appropriate speeds in certain situations difficult or as you say ‘hard work’, or feel the need for anybody to make it ‘‘easier’’ for me,
All the above comes under the category of ’ legislating for the inept’ in my own opinion for what it’s worth, or ‘dumbing down the ■■■■ job’‘, or stuff like mirror cams…‘tech for tech’s sake’’.
But actual stuff for making the job less harder… bring it on, no arguments from me whatsoever.
stu675:
My daily driver is a mirror cam Mercedes Actros.
We’ve had one of these as a replacement vehicle for about six weeks while the dealership have been doing repairs to our own unit. Downloading the VU before we handed it back to them, I had a good chat with the guy that’s been (stuck) driving it (no one else wanted this unit). Similar to others here, he had no love for this kind of vehicle, too much “bling”, and he wants to drive the truck, not vice versa. I couldn’t agree more.
If it’s anything like the car versions its idea of maintaining seperation distance is laughable.
Sudden and ridiculously exaggerated and dramatic slowing because it’s seen a 5 mph speed differential 1/4 of a mile ahead up the road or someone changes lane in front.
All of which being equally laughably predictable and dealt with less dramatically with even the lowest ability of anticipation.
) but it is personally not for me, maybe I’m far too ■■■■ old school (or even just old 
)
