What I didn’t know was that I would be able to test the driving assistance systems in the Cascadia and the Actros, above all Active Drive Assist, partially automated driving of Level 2. Not as a passenger, but as a driver on the test track. I was overwhelmed!
The following lines were written after careful consideration on the basis of my experience with 20 years of media hype, events, and many experiences that have sometimes pushed me beyond my horizons.
To have the chance to drive a truck and experience how attentive one has to be while at the same time witnessing how far technology has advanced… put simply, it was the most exciting driving experience of my entire life.
Not only because I was finally able to pull on the horn (or rather a cruise ship foghorn), but because it opened my eyes.
To drive a truck primarily means that you have to scan and monitor your surroundings even more intensely than if you’re in a car. When you’re driving a truck, you constantly look to see what is happening around you, you drive along curves completely differently than you normally would because of the length of the vehicle, you turn differently than in a car, and you repeatedly look into all of the mirrors. In a word, you’re always in surveillance mode!
To people who like to complain about truck drivers, I now have to say: “Try to do it yourself.” Honestly, only people who get the chance to be in someone else’s shoes can even remotely understand why they act the way they do.
Tolerance arises precisely when we try to understand somebody else instead of attempting to crush his or her arguments. And this realization is by no means limited to truckers, car drivers, cyclists, pedestrians or other road users.
Nevertheless… it was ultimately my drive in a truck that showed me what a fantastic job truckers do even though their work is extremely hard. I’m incredibly grateful for this!