DB Schenker and Einride are testing for commercial use a fully electric autonomous truck at a DB Schenker facility in Jonkoping, central Sweden
DB Schenker and Einride are testing for commercial use a fully electric autonomous truck at a DB Schenker facility in Jonkoping, central Sweden. This vehicle, known as a 'T-pod,' will travel continuously to and from a warehouse in order to test its suitability for transporting freight on the roads. 'We at Schenker are working at full speed on sustainable and innovative logistics. Autonomous driving will become increasingly important for this. Together with Einride, we want to bring the first autonomous, fully electric truck onto public roads in the near future and thus set new standards for tomorrow's logistics,' said DB Schenker CEO Jochen Thewes.
'Heavy road transport is responsible for a substantial part of global CO2 emissions. By substituting electricity for diesel, we reduce CO2 emissions by 90 per cent. We are happy and grateful that DB Schenker has chosen to be part of this revolution, disrupting a huge global market,' said Einride CEO Robert Falck.
Einride's T-pod has no driver's cab but is supervised and can be teleoperated by a human operator, from hundreds of miles away. Not having a driver's cab enables a smaller vehicle, increased loading capacity, greater flexibility, lower production and operating costs and optimised energy consumption, allowing the T-pod to run solely on batteries.
A fleet of T-pods can be coordinated by an intelligent routing system, optimising delivery time, battery life and energy consumption to make road freight transportation as efficient as possible.
Einride and DB Schenker initiated their partnership in April. Their agreement includes the pilot in Jonkoping and an option for additional pilots internationally.
