Innotruck | Technische Universität München

Innotruck Technische Universität München

I showed the Innotruck to a friend and their response was ‘damn, why don’t trucks all look like that?!’ Part of the Diesel Reloaded project of Technische Universität München, this sleek, futuristic vehicle ‘aims to demonstrate how paradigm shifts in automotive, energy, and information technologies can help to address major societal trends and needs.’

Appearing more akin to a bullet train or a space cruiser, the Innotruck is a testbed and plug-and-play capable vehicle for the development of such technologies as drive-by-wire control, car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure communications. Incorporated into the vehicle’s electronic brain is the ability to familiarize and recall information about individual driver habits and capabilities as well as adapting to ever-changing conditions such as road/traffic movement and driver awareness.

Courtesy of Technische Universität München

The research group envisions vehicles of the future acting more as ‘mobility partners’ than passive instruments. Instrumental to this shift in use and perception is the plug-and-play quality stated above. Easy retrofit and refit capabilities mean that new technologies can be easily mated with the Innotruck’s modular, scalable architecture to create a continuous prototype which is both demonstrative and exploratory.

Seemingly central to the concept of Innotruck is the idea that while potentially expensive, products, services and infrastructure that are more environmentally conscious and friendly have the very real possibility of being very profitable. Just look at many of the countries that are doing well financially in spite of the global economic downturn. They have pinpointed the next common cause of humanity- climate change and the ability to continue to live as modern beings- and have made themselves into leaders in the technologies that address this.