The more trucks drive toward higher levels of automated operation, the more their systems depend on rock-solid software. Advanced algorithms, complex calculus pull in massive amounts of sensor data—from what’s going on outside of the truck using cameras and radars to what’s going on inside the truck with road speed and braking sensors—to make split-second equipment operation decisions.

So when I asked Mike Hawthorne, president and chief executive officer of Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC, what motivated the acquisition of steering system manufacturer R.H. Sheppard Co. Inc., his answer shouldn’t have come as a surprise. But it did. And it’s a reflection of how software driven and dependent trucks have become. For his answer, click the window above to read the story.

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