Broad adoption of fully autonomous vehicles has been anticipated for years, but the reality has been more challenging.
Yet, we all experience autonomous transportation (airport trains and autopilot flying) every time we go to the airport a fly on a plane.
What is the future when it comes to full automation of cars and trucks? Almost every new car has some autonomous technology, but fully autonomous cars are highly complex, will require further development of technology and probably will not broadly exist until the 2030’s.
Autonomous trucking and freight movement will arrive before the end of this decade because freight movement can be restricted to specific roads, origins, destinations and time of travel. Driver shortages, supply chain challenges, decarbonization and increasing operating costs also favor a shift to electric, autonomous freight. Companies such as Einride, TuSimple, Embark, Daimler, Tesla, Volvo, Waymo, Kodiak, Nuro, Gatik, and Plus are all pilot testing autonomous trucking/freight technology.
Einride stands out from all these companies and may ultimately be the big winner because of its electric driverless PODs that have no cabs and remote human driver assistance. Einride is already moving freight on public roads in Sweden for some of the biggest global brands: Electrolux, Oatley, Coca Cola and Lidl supermarkets. Einride is in the process of entering the US market, so don’t be surprised when you soon see Einride PODs on US roads.