The advent of self-driving electric cars has advanced to the next stage. With manufacturers such as Tesla and GM putting driving assist technology into their vehicles, it was only a matter of time before a company took this idea and pushed it further for convenience and profitability, along with cutting costs and the use of fossil fuels. That entity would be Einride. Founded in 2016, Einride has a mission of "making Earth a better place." It does this through digitalization, electrification, and automation in the realm of shipping transportation.
Operational since 2019, Einride has achieved nearly 100 percent delivery precision, along with a 95 percent reduction in carbon emissions for companies when switching from diesel-based operations. The company uses data and an AI system called "Saga" to make this all work. It has its own trucks, charging stations, and intelligent trailers to handle all the transporting. In doing so, Einride is trusted by companies such as GE Appliances, Maersk, Bridgestone, and AB InBev. Thus, Einride has become the worldwide leader in the use of digital, electric, and autonomous shipping technology.
The Brains Of The Operation
Swedish shipping company Einride, uses an AI technology called "Saga," in order to get its work accomplished. Seeing as how "shipping intelligence now has a name," Einride Saga can be used to explore; evolve; book; orchestrate; extend; and connect. Using Saga, a company can get emissions reports and shipping insights and see energy usage and performance in real-time. This would enable a company to make significant strides towards zero emissions. Saga shows companies a way to get to electrification, by giving them a tailored plan on how to move towards such operations, all with minimized costs and maximized environmental benefit. The current phase of operations is at three, with 43 percent cost savings, and CO2 savings of 83 percent. Saga allows for orders, tracking, and management of deliveries.If a delivery is late, the AI explains why, along with the steps it's taking to remedy the issue. "Orchestrate," is Saga's control tower, which gives a snapshot of routes and assignments. An entire network of electric trucks and chargers are tracked in real-time, where issues may be pinpointed and resolved automatically.
Using Einride's API developer platform "Extend," this enables a series of first integrations using third-party systems, allowing a scalable way to schedule shipments. Lastly, by using Saga to connect, companies will be able to ship using a clean, safe, and efficient manner. Saga even automates charging schedules to extend battery cycle life, and ensure each vehicle is ready for upcoming shipments. Currently, Einride has plans to make use of several grids to power their freight mobility, and among them are: "Sunset Landing" in Los Angeles; "Fresher Way" in south Sweden; New York's "Empire Gate;" and the "Nordic Link" between Sweden and Norway. The company is continuing to partner with other entities to deploy more grids worldwide.
The Body Of The Network
Having a smart AI brain to run and manage operations is clearly a necessity, however, needing a body to make all that movement happen is also required. Einride uses trucks that humans remotely pilot. The first was the Gen 1 pod, followed by the Autonomous Gen 2 Rigid Large prototype. The vehicles are both cabless, electric, and autonomous! The Gen 2 offers an increased capacity cargo hold, updated optics, increased maximum speed, and night vision capabilities over the Gen 1! The "remote interface" was also upgraded in the Gen 2, as both vehicles must be operated remotely, since neither has a cab nor seating area for a human driver. Instead, they can be controlled by us using a joystick along with other controls, while sitting at a desk, looking at large screens that display live feeds of the truck's cameras. This is not unlike modern drone technology with military aircraft.
The biggest benefit to human operators is that they can go home every day rather than be out on the road. The Gen 2 was the first vehicle of its type to be operated on a public road. Employing precision sensing technologies, like advanced lidar, satellites, and cameras, the highest levels of safety are ensured. Night vision allows the truck to operate around the clock! Einride uses charging stations for overnight charging, for Einride and non-Einride fleets, that are designed to meet region-specific needs. Using smart green roadways that interlink stations, range anxiety is effectively eliminated.
Part of the body, an extension if you will, are Einride's trailers. Powered by Saga, there are unique data insights to optimize load utilization and trailer performance. In real-time, there's AI-driven route planning and end-to-end cargo monitoring. Combined with the trucks, the trailers allow for up to 650 kilometers (404 miles) of fossil-free range! Just like with the truck itself, the trailers make use of real-time sensors and cameras, making them essentially theft-proof. There's even a flatbed available for shipping containers.
Moving Into The Future
With Einride having announced expansions into several different European countries in the past 12 months, and with a pilot run on a U.S. public road in October 2022, you can bet that autonomous shipping will come to a theater near you! Einride just secured 500 million in financing and has already partnered with several companies such as GE Appliances and Bridgestone. Although Einride built its prototypes, they plan to contract further manufacturing to others. The writing is on the wall that Einride is coming, vast reaching and fully loaded.