The truck is built on the 789D mining truck chassis and integrates the truck, tank and Cat Water Delivery System (WDS), connected with Cat MineStar technology. It is designed to prevent haul road overwatering and underwatering by digitally tracking water consumption. Depending on the tank configuration, it can hold up to 43,588 gallons of water.

The 789D uses Command for hauling to interact with other autonomous equipment on mine sites managed by MineStar. The truck can sense when the water tank is running low and will automatically turn off watering once the tank is empty to prevent damage to the water pump. It can be programmed to return to the water refill station to fully automate the water refill process. An auto shutoff feature prevents tank overfilling.

"This model allows the truck to monitor traffic, weather and road conditions, prioritize what areas need to be watered, when the areas need to be watered, and how many passes it should take to apply the correct amount of water saturation, for the given conditions. The integration of Caterpillar’s many years of autonomous truck operations and water delivery development have been combined to make a high performing autonomous watering solution,” said Corey Wurtzbacher, general manager and vice president, technology and global sales support of Caterpillar.

The water delivery system varies water flow based on truck speed and automatically determines the correct amount of water needed to control dust while helping customers conserve water. When truck speed drops below the minimum watering speed setting, determined by site operations, the system stops water delivery to help prevent overwatering, poor traction and damage to haul road intersections and other stopping areas. When truck speed exceeds the minimum watering speed setting, the system begins depositing the specified amount of water commanded by MineStar.

The 789D AWT can be switched from autonomous mode to staffed mode for tasks like front water-cannon operation. The cannon can distribute up to 759 gallons per minute with a spray distance reaching 200 feet. Even with an operator, the Aute Mode feature will continue to automate the watering process to provide the correct amount of water for dust control.

This water truck is pretty bad ass! I can imagine it would make the water needed for soil compaction be complete much easier. Cat a great business that produces amazing construction vehicles to increase the productivity of construction!