Man who's only ever driven cars drives a truck with no training and shares what it was like

A man who’s only driven cars was given the chance to drive a Mercedes Actros – an 18-ton semi-truck – around the track, and the experience was interesting for several different reasons.

The truck’s size played a part, but that’s only half of the story.

The truth is, a semi-truck is more than just a big car.

But there’s a reason why this is getting better by the day.

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There are reasons why you need special licenses for a semi-truck like this

A long time ago, back when ‘health and safety’ was a foreign concept, one license was enough to drive anything and everything.

That’s changed now, and it keeps on changing.

You can definitely no longer drive a motorcycle or a long-haul truck with your driving license, but some jurisdictions took this one step further.

Now, you’ve got separate licenses for automatic and manual cars in some countries and regions, and there are even countries that are introducing special licenses for high-performance cars.

It’d be tempting to dismiss these distinctions and shrug them off, but sometimes, these requirements are justified.

A man, AKA yours truly, who’s only driven regular passenger cars and vehicles, found that out the hard way after trying to drive a semi-truck – the Mercedes Actros you see here – around a track.

And the reason why you can’t just drive a semi-truck with a ‘normal’ license became immediately clear.

Just like driving a car… except it isn’t

A semi-truck has wheels, pedals, and a steering wheel, and so it’d be tempting to assume driving one must be more or less like driving a car.

But it isn’t.

Size is certainly an issue, but it isn’t the only one.

The weird transmission will also give some people a headache.

This is changing now because modern trucks – including some gas-powered ones – use transmissions that are either partially or fully automated, but the setup is still difficult to understand and master.

Some trucks have up to 18 gears, including gears with different settings that are sometimes called ‘split gears’.

The truck you see here is an 18-ton Mercedes Actros with a 12.8-liter engine developing 475hp.

It’s a sophisticated truck with a ton of technology, and we tested it around a track in a controlled environment, but even so, every yard in this truck required the brainwork one would normally need to drive 100 miles in a car.

The good news is modern trucks, especially if they’re electric, are easier to drive – and they have no gears – which is probably music to the ears of people who do this for a living.