Einride begins fully-autonomous, commercial EV truck operations with GE Appliances
Autonomous EV freight developer Einride announced another key milestone today, deploying full-time, commercial operations with longtime partner, GE Appliances. The autonomous trucks are navigating between GE’s manufacturing facility and warehouse, demonstrating a case for scaled commercialization in the electric freight industry.
Today’s milestone is another notable achievement for a relatively young company like Einride, which was founded in Sweden less than eight years ago. In that time, we’ve followed much of the autonomous truck company’s progress, including partnerships with companies like Maersk and Beyond Meat, as well as expansions into new markets like Germany.
After announcing plans to set up a new headquarters in the US, we’ve seen Einride make huge strides in all-electric autonomous freight mobility the past two years. In June of 2022, the company received approval from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to begin piloting its Pod trucks – marking the first time a purpose-built autonomous, electric truck without a driver on board has received permission to operate on public US roads.
At the time, we reported that Einride’s client, GE Appliances would serve as the key partner in the initial US pilot program to both test and showcase the commercialization capabilities of the autonomous, electric Pod trucks.
18 months later, Einride has shared a progress update with GE in which the former has begun full-time autonomous truck operations between two of the latter’s facilities in Tennessee.
Einride’s autonomous trucks run daily for GE Appliances
Following a successful public road pilot program with GE Appliances last year, Einride reports that its zero-emission autonomous trucks are now operating in Selmer, Tennessee, Monday through Thursday – completing up to seven shuttles of finished goods per day.
The trucks autonomously navigate 0.3 miles between GE Appliances’ manufacturing facility and warehouse while being monitored by one of Einride’s Remote Pod Operators, who can take control of the EVs if needed. In this case, Einride’s first remote operator, Tiffany Heathcott is monitoring the trucks on-site, rather than from her usual hub in Texas.
A relatively short route to begin, yes, but still a milestone for autonomous freight, as Einride’s Trucks are successfully navigating public roads around the clock with no humans present. Henrik Green, Einride’s general manager of autonomous technologies, spoke:
We are very proud to partner with GE Appliances and be able to lead the industry in providing autonomous technology and deploying it in the strongest commercial use case today. We look forward to continuing this work to establish autonomous’ key role in transportation, both with GE Appliances and other partners across markets.
Einride states that its autonomous truck operation is part of a larger project in Selmer with GE, which also includes other industry partners with the goal of creating a freight logistics flow that is entirely automated.
For instance, GE Appliances has also partnered with TaskWatch, whose AI cameras trigger a control board that raises and lowers GE’s dock doors and dock plate, then locks the Einride truck into place. The system then notifies a robot that the autonomous truck is ready to load. The robots come from another GE partner – Slip Robotics – whose technology can autonomously load and unload the vehicles, reducing times by 80%.
Together, Einride and GE Appliances hope to demonstrate the potential of a streamlined holistic logistics system that extends well beyond autonomous, zero emissions trucks and into every single aspect of the process – from factory to delivery. Per Harry Chase, senior director of central materials at GE Appliances:
Our partnership with Einride in Selmer reflects our evolved approach to robotics and automation technology. We are moving from implementing one-off solutions addressing various challenges to creating interoperability among systems that can build consistency and streamline processes in our factories and throughout our supply chain. This implementation in Selmer is helping us reduce emissions, allowing our employees to focus on high value tasks, reducing traffic in congested areas to create a safer work environment, and eliminating some of the most challenging ergonomic tasks like climbing on and off a forklift and hooking and unhooking trailers. We believe robotics and automation technology should work with and for people to improve their jobs.
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Launched as a joint venture between Toyota Group and Tier 1 supplier Hexagon Purus, the new Tern brand of heavy duty electric trucks announced Hino Trucks as its exclusive US distributor.
Another Toyota Group brand, Hino Trucks nevertheless brings a nationwide network of more than 200 heavy truck dealers (and their customers) to the new JV with Hexagon, which is specifically focused on electrifying “practical” commercial vehicle applications.
Glenn Ellis, President and CEO of Hino Trucks, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership. “Our collaboration with Hexagon Purus introduces a highly reliable Class 8, 4×2 tractor option into the electric truck market, catering to a wide range of applications,” he explained. “We are excited to be the exclusive distributor for Tern with an initial distribution focus in California, where fleet electrification is imperative.”
Tern RC8 electric semi
The new Tern RC8 electric truck offers a 68,000 lb. GVWR, 680 peak horsepower electric motor (494 continuous), a 200 mile range, and the ability to go from 0-80% charge in less than two hours at 240 kW. Energy comes from dual Hexagon Purus Gen3 269kWh battery packs in a 750-volt, 538 kWh configuration.
The announcement coincides with California’s Advanced Clean Fleets regulation, and was made today at the ACT Expo, which is taking place this year in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Serial production for the Tern RC8 is scheduled to begin later this year.
Electrek’s Take
It’s hard to act surprised that a Toyota brand is going to be supported by Toyota’s existing dealer network, but it’s worth noting that, while Toyota is marketing/lobbying against EVs on the one hand, it’s quietly investing big bucks into battery electric on the other.
My guess: as soon as Toyota has a viable BEV on the market, they’ll “suddenly” realize that BEVs were the way to go all along. #bet
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With influence from the designer behind the Aston Martin Vanquish and Jaguar I-Pace, the Callum Skye is a fierce-looking off-road EV sports car. The latest Ian Callum creation is now available to order.
Meet the $100,000 Callum Skye off-road EV sports car
The Callum Skye is the first EV from Ian Callum, an iconic British car designer’s own design and engineering firm.
Introduced last November, the Callum Skye is an all-electric 2+2 off-roader. As the “world’s most beautiful multi-terrain vehicle,” according to its engineers, the Skye is unique and versatile.
With a Callum design, you can see the influence from the Jaguar F-Type and Aston Martin vehicles with its sleek, rugged exterior design.
The electric sports car is designed for those seeking “extraordinary on and off-road adventures,” crafted with “the utmost capability, refinement, and beauty.”
Powered by a 42 kWh battery, the Callum Skye is expected to get up to 170 miles range. It also includes ultra-fast charging for a full charge in under 10 minutes.
At 4,047 mm long and 1,900 mm wide, the Skye is smaller than other off-road EVs like the Rivian R1T, but like the Rivian, it boasts sports car performance, with a 0 to 60 mph sprint in under 4 seconds.
At just 1,150 kg (about 2,500 lbs), the off-roader is also one of the lightest EVs on the market.
The inside features a central touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility. Callum designed the dashboard with a focus on functionality with easy touchscreen dials.
Up front are two cossetting sports seats. Meanwhile, the rear features a versatile bench that can removed for extra storage.
Callum says the hinged tailgate has enough storage for luggage for a long weekend getaway, sports, and lifestyle gear.
The Callum Skye has been testing in Europe and is now available to order. According to Autocar, the production version is priced from £80,000 to £110,000 ($101,700 to $140,000). The company plans to release several variants, but more details and specs will be revealed closer to launch.
If interested, you can reserve your Callum Skye model on the company’s website here.
What do you think? Would you buy the electric off-roader for $100,000? Drop us a comment below to let us know your thoughts.
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Renault doesn’t think fully autonomous vehicle have a place in the private vehicle market – but pulic transit? That’s a different story, and Renault is partnering with WeRide to put this Level 4 autonomous shuttle bus into production.
While some manufacturers are putting everything they’ve got into autonomous driving (for better or worse), French carmaker Renault is taking a different path. The company believes that, by separating expectations for individual vehicles from those of public transportation, they’ll be able to deliver on the promise of self-driving vehicles much sooner than later.
This latest project is being developed in conjunction with WeRide, a company that launched in 2017 with the stated goal of managing the large-scale commercial deployment of vehicles with an L4 level of autonomy. Together, WeRide and Renault have been testing its autonomous shuttle concepts for years in an effort to meet the needs of local authorities in European “low emission” zones.
“Renault Group is moving forward to implement its autonomous vehicle strategy,” says Gilles Le Borgne, CTO Renault Group. “As a result, thanks to our experiments and our partners, the best in their fields, we will be in a position, well before the end of this decade, to propose a highly relevant range of autonomous, low-carbon miniBuses to meet the growing needs of the regions.”
A fleet of these WeRide automated electric minibuses are slated to be integrated into the public transportation network of Chateauroux Metropole in France by 2026.
Electrek’s Take
In a bit of a surprise move, Renault is playing up the cost benefits of eliminating the operators’ jobs in its press release – specifically calling out those savings as a key benefit in the purchase of its automated shuttles. Lest you think that’s an exaggeration, I’ve quoted them:
More flexible, autonomous miniBuses will be able to operate 24/7 in complete safety and will be a zero-emission alternative or an efficient complement to existing solutions (train, tram, bus) in terms of costs and CO2/km.passenger. The additional costs of robotisation and automation could be offset by the absence of on-board operators. A simple remote supervision system will be required to operate a fleet of vehicles.
Why is this surprising, you ask? Well, the French have a habit of, you know – rioting in the streets and setting things on fire whenever they feel like their labor benefits are threatened. For a French company to actively market taking away those jobs?
That’s either brave or stupid.
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