Autonomous electric truck startup looks to change freight transport
There's a new player in the autonomous trucking game, and it's coming out of the gate with some big claims.
Swedish transportation company Einride announced its global launch with news that it's working to establish the world's first totally emission-free road transportation system. Their aim: To knock out the current semi truck-based supply chain.
Einride's emission-free model is based on an entirely new vehicle class, which it calls the "T-pod," a fully electric self-driving vehicle that can also be controlled by remote drivers.
SEE ALSO:This Swedish ad perfectly mocks the hype around self-driving carsThe "T-pod" is around seven meters (23 feet) long, with a cargo capacity of about 15 standard pallets and a weight of 20 tons when carrying a full load.
Einride said it should be able to travel 200 km (124 miles) on one charge, which doesn't sound like much -- but the company thinks the system's efficiency and low demand for operators will make up for the loss of range.
Einride says it will begin T-pod routes between Gothenburg and Helsingborg in Sweden with a capacity of 2,000,000 pallets per year. But there's no set date for the service to begin -- there's not even an IRL prototype of the T-pod just yet, let alone any demonstrated self-driving systems.
Testing for that will begin later this year, along with the development of everything else Einride will need for a game-changing electric transportation network, like charging stations and other infrastructure.
The company hopes to have an active fleet of 200 vehicles by 2020, yet without anything but undisclosed agreements with anonymous partners and clients, a flashy hype video, and a rendering, it's not sure exactly how realistic achieving that goal might be.
Other self-driving truck projects, which depend on harnessing new-age autonomous systems on the old-school semis, have already demonstrated pilot programs out on the open road. Otto, Embark, and Nvidia's PACCAR collaboration are all further along the self-driving road than Einride -- and none of them are proposing the massive paradigm shift the Swedish company has planned.
Until Einride can back up its plans, it'll just be another cool concept for a greener future. We'll have to actually see a T-pod in action to believe the hype.
Featured Video For You
These self-driving buses could make owning a car totally pointless
TopicsSustainability
相关文章
- Where to pre-order the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 ProGoogleGoogle Pixel 9Starting at $799 (plus get a free2024-09-22
The long goodbye: Barca say adios to Messi
BARCELONA:When Lionel Messi won an unprecedented sixth Ballon d'Or in December last year, the sp2024-09-22Google is killing SMS support for Hangouts
Google is streamlining its messaging apps - or so they say.Hangouts will no longer support SMS texti2024-09-22Florida man discovers huge snake has been living in his attic for years
Out of all the stuff that can go wrong in Florida, finding out that a snake has been hiding out in y2024-09-22CrowdStrike outage is still causing hundreds of flight cancellations daily
Three days after a faulty update in cybersecurity company CrowdStrike's software caused a global IT2024-09-22- TOKYO:The camaraderie between Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi c2024-09-22
最新评论