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Daimler’s Freightliner Cascadia now the company’s most-connected truck ever

Bruce Brown
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Fuel efficiency, connectivity, and safety are the hallmarks of the newest Freightliner Cascadia. In Daimler’s announcement of the new Freightliner flagship, the company said Daimler Trucks is the biggest truck producer in the United States and Canada.

The newest model has also a significantly reduced cost of ownership. A combination of aerodynamic shape and powertrain components have improved fuel efficiency up to 8 percent over the company’s previous headliner, the 2016 Cascadia Evolution.

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“Our new Freightliner is the most connected truck we have ever built,” said Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard, Daimler AG board member responsible for trucks and buses. “It proves the consistent way in which the technology strategy of Freightliner has developed in the U.S. Already today, more than 180,000 of our trucks in North America are online. With our new Cascadia, this number will increase dramatically.”

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According to the company, more than 412,000 Cascadias have sold in North America since the brand’s launch in 2007, giving it a 43 percent market share.

The Cascadia’s connectivity platform, Detroit Connect Analytics, has a Virtual Technician feature that sends a message about the engine’s status to a Freightliner Customer Service Center whenever a warning light goes off. The platform also monitors fuel efficiency and safety data.

One of the main reasons for the truck’s relative fuel efficiency, according to Daimler, is that the company manufactures the entire integrated powertrain, with no third-party components. In this way, with engines, transmissions, and axles all from the same source the components work better together because they were built together.

The new Cascadia has full LED lighting for improved field of view. An optional Detroit Assurance 4.0 safety suite includes Active Brake Assist with full braking, Adaptive Cruise Control, and Lane Departure Warning.

“The new Cascadia is more than an update of past successes,” said Martin Daum, president and CEO of Daimler Trucks North America. “It pushes fuel efficiency, connectivity and safety technology to a new level. Once more we underline the technological leadership of Daimler Trucks in North America and we again reduced the real cost of ownership for our customers.”

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Bruce Brown
Bruce Brown
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Digital Trends Contributing Editor Bruce Brown is a member of the Smart Homes and Commerce teams. Bruce uses smart devices…
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