In a blink of an eye: Scania Autonomous Trucks help Red Bull Athlete Matt Jones complete a World First

In a story of man vs motor, Scania's autonomously driven trucks gave Red Bull Athlete and mountain biker, Matt Jones, the opportunity to become the first person to jump through two moving trucks.

This world first, completed at an airfield close to Scania's home in Sodertalje, Sweden, was a true test of both innovation and precision, as both the rider and the trucks needed to be in perfect sync for the jump to happen safely.

Having originally sketched the idea down in a notepad, Matt chose to use Scania's self-driving trucks, as the accuracy and dependability of this cutting-edge AI-based technology, would guarantee Matt with the window of less than a second to make the jump.

Speaking about the challenge, Peter Hafmar, Head of Autonomous Solutions at Scania, says: "What an incredible feat and world first to be involved with. It was a real team effort from the Scania and Red Bull teams, with months of working together to make Matt's 'impossible' vision a reality.

"You need to remember; he has just a blink of an eye to make this jump. With no margin for error, the team had to be so precise and calculated throughout.

Thanks to our autonomous trucks, we could create a window of opportunity needed for Matt to do this kind of jump.

Seeing first-hand the precision and safety that Scania's autonomous trucks and technology has brought to this challenge fills us with immense pride.

"Transport is a cornerstone of our daily lives, and with that comes the responsibility to make sure goods arrive to the right person or company in the most safe and efficient way. This feat gives everyone a glimpse of what autonomous technology is capable of - delivering precision and safety that you can count on."

Red Bull Athlete Matt Jones said: "I tried to turn my brain off and become autonomous, I had full faith in the technology and maths. I was completely locked in staring at the road ahead with the trucks in my peripheral vision, knowing that they were going to cross over each other and reveal the gap I was going to jump through.

"When I got halfway up the ramp and the trucks had initially gone past each other, I felt huge adrenaline because I could see the target on the other side.

I instantly went from feeling numb to being flooded with adrenaline, it was nothing like I've experienced before.

"After completing the jump I experienced so many emotions. I had a sense of relief, pride and accomplishment in myself, but also so much appreciation and respect for the Red Bull team and Scania to make all of this possible."

After months of meticulous planning, technical and physical rehearsals and safety checks to prepare, this feat saw the Scania, Red Bull and PlusAI teams collaborate and share their creativity, engineering expertise and determination to turn an 'impossible' vision into a reality.

Watch Red Bull's Matt Jones complete his world first jump here.

Scania is already revolutionising transport, with its focus of driving the shift towards sustainable transport systems that creates a world of mobility that is better for business, society and the environment. Autonomous vehicle technology is ready to and will play an active role in redefining safety, operational efficiency and minimising the environmental impact.

This technology is no longer just an idea for the future.

Scania's autonomous mining trucks have been operating in Rio Tinto's mine in Australia since 2018, and have been available to commercially buy since 2024.

That is just the beginning.

Self-driving technology will soon be moving onto highways, enabling hub-to-hub freight transport.

In fact, Scania is already actively testing on European roads, in partnership with the Silicon Valley based company PlusAI.

Scania's world-class trucks and in-house software capabilities, paired with PlusAI's cutting-edge AI-based technology will deliver safe, scalable and factory-built autonomous solutions for the road.

Find out more about Scania's autonomous technology here: scania.com/autonomous