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The latest incarnation of the MOTIS modular cab layout displayed
Page 37
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in both MAN TGA and Mercedes Actros cabs at last month's IAA Show is based around two stacking units on either side of the truck's rear wall, filling the space normally taken up by the twin-bunks and lockers in a regular sleeper cab.
Each stacking unit is subdivided into washing, cooking and storage modules. There's even a slide-out toilet, too. On top of each stacker, there are two removable 'soft cupboards', which are basically large shoulder bags for clothes and so forth. They sit below a large bunk, which is lowered down from the roof on cantilevers.
While we wouldn't expect big fleet operators to want anything other than a bog-standard tractor, MOTIS could find favour among smaller hauliers or owner-operators prepared to pay for an optional truck interior that's tailored to the needs of an individual driver. And while few volume truck-makers would want to disrupt the flow of their production lines to fit an optional MOTIS interior, it would certainly be possible to fit one 'off-line', either at the factory or at a dealership, using a truck finished with normal dashboard, seats and interior trim, but without any fittings in the sleeper area.
Interestingly, the 4.0m-high Actros Space Max Concept tractor (left) developed by Mercedes as a way to generate a dialogue with drivers as to what they'd like in a longdistance sleeper cab is based on a similar premise.
We spoke last year to Bertrand Janssen, Daimler's head of truck design and creator of the Space Max, and the Merc design guru confirmed modular interior cab packages similar to MOTIS were not only feasible, but likely to find favour with owner-drivers "...as they have their own ideas of where they want things to go [in the cab] to suit their preferences".