The Swedish company Einride has entered the Goodwood Festival of Speed with T-log, a prototype version of an all-electric timber truck equipped with a level 4 self-driving system.
The environment-friendly truck won’t enter road testing phase until 2020 or later.
The new Einride T-log has no driver’s cab in the traditional sense. Instead, it has NVIDIA Drive IV which enables it to drive autonomously. If necessary, an operator can override this system, assuming control over the vehicle manually.
“The driver’s cab increases production cost. We can cut the costs considerably if we remove it completely and hand the steering over to a remote operator,” Einride CEO Robert Falck said.
Thanks to the missing cab, the entire truck is only 7.3 meters (24 ft.) long, but can carry up to 20 metric tons (22 U.S. tons) of cargo.
The company isn’t just planning to start mass production of such pilotless trucks. It also wants to establish its own logistic network in Sweden. The network will be comprised of 200 autonomous commercial vehicles and charging stations situated on all major routes.
Photo: Einride