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The advantages of Scania's autonomous mining trucks explained

24 SEPTEMBER 2024

How Scania’s autonomous truck can help create a more efficient, safer and more sustainable mining industry.

After a successful year-long trial period with a major mining customer in one of the world’s largest mining areas in Pilbara, Australia, Scania is now launching its new autonomous mining truck onto the market.

This is the first commercial step towards realising our vision of a ready-made product with the latest technology to enable a safer, more sustainable and more efficient mining industry.

It is a timely solution, as the industry has been facing several significant challenges over the past few years. There have been concerns over mining’s safety as well as its environmental impact, energy consumption and costs, operational inefficiency and a growing shortage of skilled labour; the industry itself has been striving for ways to address these issues.

Here, we take a look at the specific advantages of the Scania autonomous mining truck which put it in the (self) driving seat:

The Scania autonomous truck is more efficient because:

The vehicle’s on-board intelligent software continuously evaluates the road ahead, choosing the best and safest path to drive.
The autonomous truck always travels at a consistent speed, which ensures the most efficient fuel consumption.
The transport industry is facing a worldwide driver shortage, in part due to people sustainability issues. Using autonomous trucks for long-haul will make it more attractive for drivers to focus on the shorter hauls, with better quality of life.
The truck can operate on smaller roads compared with the traditional larger mining, which helps maximise uptime in the tough conditions of a mine.
Smaller trucks can reach higher speeds on uphill stretches than the bigger versions, quickening operational time.
Scania offers a holistic portfolio of smart services, ensuring the truck is up and running with optimal uptime.

The Scania autonomous mining truck is safer because:

It avoids needing to use manual trucks with a driver in the dangerous, high-pressure environment of a mine;
The robot sees the road ahead rather than a driver making educated guesses. The truck has ‘Eyes everywhere’ through LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), RADAR and GPS; these allow it to detect traffic, people and other objects at a safe distance both ahead and to the sides of the vehicle.
It is a truck that ‘talks’ to other traffic using V2X short-range communication technology — V2X (vehicle-to-everything) is the wireless communication between the autonomous vehicle and any truck or object that may affect, or be affected by, the vehicle. Sometimes called C-V2X, it is a vehicular communication system that is intended to improve road safety and traffic efficiency while reducing pollution and saving energy.
he autonomous truck has decentralised autonomous intelligence, software that runs on board the vehicles independently without the need for human commands.
But it also has back-up from the control room and the ‘mobile 2 stop’ device, which acts as an override function.

The Scania autonomous truck is more sustainable because:

It is a smaller truck than the massive mining dump trucks that are normally used, and so uses less fuel.
Using smaller trucks in open pits allows the mining operators choose sites that are faster and cheaper to construct, maintain and restore, thus reducing the footprint and scarring of the land area.
Smaller trucks are more agile than their larger counterparts, which enables selective digging rather than a whole-site approach, again lessening the footprint.
And the smaller truck also allows the operator to have multiple narrow roads to and from the extraction area, which allows a better traffic flow with multiple vehicles at a time.
The truck, in common with the rest of Scania’s portfolio is suitable for electrification. When you are ready to electrify, so are we!

A smart choice

With a lower environmental impact, reduced capital and operational expenses, and the potential for full electrification, the autonomous mining truck is a smart choice for the future of the mining industry.