Lidl has incorporated a completely autonomous electric truck without a driver’s cabin into its logistics operations in Germany. The vehicle, developed by the Swedish technology company Einride, already regularly transports goods between a distribution center of the chain and one of its stores, traveling on public roads. The project is a step beyond the usual tests with autonomous vehicles: the truck operates without a driver or safety operator on board and has an official authorization from the German Federal Office for Motor Transport (KBA). According to the companies, it is the first permit of its kind granted in the country.
The vehicle uses a Level 4 autonomous driving system, a category in which the system can take over all driving tasks within the conditions and areas for which it has been designed.
The truck supplies a Lidl store from the logistics center that the company operates in Edermünde, near Kassel, but the intention is to test the technology within daily operations and analyze its integration into the logistics chain.
The design dispenses with a space for a human driver from the beginning.
“With this project we test step by step and safely a technology in real operations to see how future solutions can be integrated into our logistics”said Thomas Dangelmayer, head of operational logistics at Lidl in Germany.
The KBA authorization has occurred after a safety validation process to verify the operation of the vehicle in real traffic conditions. One of the peculiarities of the Einride model is precisely the absence of a cabin, since the design dispenses from the beginning with a space intended for a human driver.
The project does not intend to remain on the initial path either. Einride and Lidl plan to progressively expand the route until a system is developed milkruna logistics model in which the vehicle makes an itinerary with different stops to pick up or deliver goods instead of simply connecting two points. The deployment of the technology in other divisions of Schwarz Group, the group that owns Lidl, is also being studied.
The initiative seeks to respond to some of the challenges currently facing freight transport, especially the shortage of drivers and the need to guarantee the continuity and reliability of supply chains.
The Swedish company has been developing this type of autonomous trucks for years, known as Pods, whose appearance breaks with the traditional configuration of heavy vehicles precisely because it eliminates the cabin and elements associated with human driving.
Lidl and Einride will now analyze the operation of the route before extending the model to more stops and studying new applications within the group.
