First impressions: Detroit DD5 test drive

First impressions: Detroit DD5 test drive

Four cylinders in a Class 6 truck? Can a 4-cylinder engine effectively and efficiently do the job in medium-duty conventional truck applications? Daimler Trucks North America is convinced a 5-liter diesel makes sense, and—following the Daimler platform's success in Europe—the market-leading truck maker is confident enough to kick off its entry into medium-duty engines on this side of the Atlantic with the Detroit DD5.

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New Mercedes Benz Van Options

Mercedes Benz Vans LLC is planning to roll out new commercial options and packages for its full-size Sprinter and mid-size Metris vans by the end of the year; options that are being lumped together in the main under a new moniker, the “Master Solutions” program. (All photos by Sean Kilcarr/Fleet Owner)

New upfit options for Sprinter, Metris by year’s end

Mercedes Benz Vans to give its new full- and mid-size commercial packages the name “Master Solutions.”

NORTH CHARLESTON, SC. By the end of 2016, Mercedes Benz Vans LLC plans to introduce a new line of commercial upfit packages crafted in partnership with various suppliers for its full-size Sprinter and mid-size Metris vans, grouped under the name “Master Solutions.”

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What Goes Around Comes Around

My first job out of college (1976) was working in the military defense industry at General Electric in Utica, NY. I was doing some electronics testing for a down-looking radar system to allow missiles to fly autonomously to a target. Some of that technology was used in the early 90's in a war we had where some may remember video of a bomb finding a chimney and going down it. A key to that technology was an a priori map of the terrain that allowed the radar to correlate what it was seeing live with what had previously been recorded by some other means.

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