Long-haul trucking may be the first transport instance where autonomous driving comes into its own.
Swedish start-up Einride has unveiled a prototype of a self-driving truck without a steering wheel, pedals, a windshield, and even the cab, reports The Verge.
The all-electric T-pod is much shorter than a traditional tractor trailer, at seven metres long. Einride says the T-pod will weigh 20 tonnes at full load, comparable to a Class 8 truck. The T-pod can be controlled remotely by a human operator, or can operate autonomously without human intervention, the company says.
Einride says it aims to deliver “a complete transport system between Gothenburg-Helsingborg” by 2020 involving 200 T-pods with associated charging stations along the way.
About 60% of the total number that will travel between Gothenburg and Helsingborg has been filled, Einride says. The system’s first route will take up to two million pallets annually.
The full-scale prototype was at Almedalen, a week-long Swedish political event on the island of Gotland.
Some concerns centre around driverless technology leading to job displacement.
In the US, 4.4 million jobs are related to driving, of which trucking jobs comprise about 2.5 million. Automated trucks could reduce the demand for drivers as much as 50% to 70% in the US and Europe by 2030, with 4.4 million of the 6.4 million professional drivers on both continents rendered obsolete, a recent study says.
Alphabet’s Waymo is working on a prototype, as is Uber, while Tesla is working on its own all-electric semi, likely to include some autonomous capabilities.
But most, including smaller start-ups like Embark, don’t envision completely cutting out the driver like Einride.
