Mack Trucks is testing a truck that automatically switches between diesel and electric operation as conditions dictate, resulting in substantial fuel savings and emissions reductions.
While driverless big trucks remain fodder for press releases and experiments, the trucking industry is making other levels of autonomous technology increasingly standard.
In less than two years, the biggest names in semi-trucks have unveiled a combined seven new models, often replacing vehicles they hadn’t redesigned in a decade or more.
Mack Trucks is partnering with Oberon Fuels and the New York sanitation department to field test a Class 8 Mack tractor fueled with Dimethyl Ether, or DME, a low-emissions alternative to diesel. Volvo Trucks is also testing DME.
The Mack LR electric garbage truck unveiled at WasteExpo demonstrates how electric and hybrid technology can make refuse collection cleaner, quieter and more fuel efficient.
