Freightliner offered a sneak-peek of its future Wednesday in Louisville, Ky. The new Revolution concept truck shows where Freightliner’s future engineering is headed.
Dave Hames, vice president of marketing for Freightliner, said the Revolution is the first-ever fully functional concept truck on display at a trucking show. “This is not a mock-up,” Hames said. “This truck drove itself onto the stage and is fully functional in every way.”
Hames said the Revolution truck is “kind of a regional cab and kind of a raised roof sleeper. In fact, it is a highly flexible design that combines the flexibility of a sleeper with the utility and practicality of a daycab. It is a true crossover cab.”
The front of the truck features bold styling combined with aggressive aerodynamics. The low-nose design is made possible by an experimental split-radiator design and an additional mid-body mounted auxiliary radiator system.
The one-driver design seems a bit strange to today’s truckers – primarily due to the lack of a passenger door. Instead, the Revolution has a full-sized rear-entry door designed to optimize access to the sleeper and fifth wheel.
Inside the cab, Freightliner has worked to conceptualize the cab and sleeper of tomorrow with features like an iPad dash with interface with trucker-specific apps for hands-free virtual chartrooms, as well as load- and fuel-finder programs. Aircraft inspired, swing-down storage bins provide use of limited space as does a combination fold-down bunk/work station arrangement.
Whether the Revolution truck will ever see the light of day as a full-blown production model remains to be seen, but it is probable many of its advanced features will turn up on other Daimler models.
