Lidl launches pilot of driverless electric truck on German road in Hesse

Lidl announced a pilot project that will use an autonomous, electric truck built by the Swedish start-up Einride to supply a store in Edermünde, near Kassel, Hessen. The vehicle, which lacks a driver’s cabin, can hold up to 15 Euro pallets and will travel a short 400-metre loop three times a day, moving dry merchandise from a nearby distribution centre. The Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt approved this as the first highly automated freight operation on German public roads, but mandates that a conventional escort vehicle accompany the robotruck for the duration of the four-month trial.

Remote operators can intervene if needed, but no on-board driver is present. Lidl views the trial as a step toward mitigating the chronic shortage of truck drivers and intends to extend the service to additional stores after the initial phase. Einride previously demonstrated a similar robotruck in the Belgian port of Antwerpen and runs a comparable program in Ohio, while larger autonomous-truck deployments are already underway in the United States.