The combination of definitions given in the title has so far been difficult to imagine in the context of a description of commercial equipment, but construction machinery manufacturer Liebherr intends to demonstrate the concept of the S1 Vision dump truck at an industry exhibition in Munich, which has only two coaxial wheels and moves without a driver using electric traction.
Image source: Liebherr
This layout is familiar to fans of personal mobility devices from Segway products, but the Liebherr concept is noticeably larger and heavier, and instead of transporting a single person, it is designed to move up to 140 tons of cargo, which can be automatically dumped from the body in a designated place. The presence of an electric drive, according to the developers, significantly reduces the need for servicing such equipment, and the ability to automatically follow a given route eliminates the need to assign a driver to each dump truck. On the route, such autonomous trucks can line up in caravans.
When unloading, special supports are extended, and the proportionally short body is emptied by tilting. The authors of the concept emphasize that the presence of only one axle provides such a truck with high maneuverability. This quality can be useful in the cramped conditions of a quarry or a farm with dense vegetation, as well as a construction site. Trucks can be produced in different categories of load capacity and used in various industries. Liebherr has not yet reported anything about the technical characteristics and timing of the appearance of serial machines of this kind.