Stockholm: The Swedish startup Einride has unveiled a prototype of a self-driving truck ‘T-pod’, that completely lacks a steering wheel, pedals, a windshield, and, well, the whole cab really.
The all-electric T-pod is much shorter than your average traditional tractor trailer, clocking in at just 23 feet long, which is likely due to the absence of the cabin.
Einride says the T-pod will weigh 20 tons at full load, which is comparable to a Class 8 truck. The company says T-pod can be controlled remotely by a human operator, or can operate autonomously without human intervention.
Einride says it aims to deliver “a complete transport system between Gothenburg-Helsingborg” by 2020. This transport system will involve 200 T-pods with associated charging stations on the route.
Einride says it has already filled 60 percent of the total number that will travel between Gothenburg and Helsingborg. The system’s first route will have a capacity of up to 2,000,000 pallets per year. The full-scale prototype was on-hand this week at Almedalen, a week-long Swedish political event taking place on the island of Gotland.
Alphabet’s Waymo is working on a prototype, as is Uber. (The two startups are embroiled in a bitter legal dispute over the acquisition of the self-driving truck firm Otto by Uber.) Meanwhile, Tesla is working on its own all-electric semi, which will likely include some autonomous capabilities. But most, including smaller startups like Embark, don’t envision completely cutting out the driver like Einride.
