Swedish freight mobility startup Einride enters the U.S. market with its fleet of electric self-driving trucks without a driver cabin

The driverless revolution is here and many are wondering what the future would look like. Now, we don’t need to look so far. Today, Swedish electric and autonomous freight tech startup Einride has entered the U.S. market with its fleet of electric self-driving trucks without a driver cabin.

The Stockholm, Sweden-based company announced on Wednesday it has launched its US operations and signed up GE Appliances, Swedish vegan milk maker, and Oatly and tiremaker Bridgestone as customers. Since its inception five years ago, Einride has helped reduce customer CO₂ emissions by 94% compared to driving with diesel, including embodied emissions.

With climate change becoming one of the major issues confronting the world today, Electrification — and autonomous vehicles — are both big themes in the world of transportation. Einride is one of the many startup companies developing technologies for transportation systems. Einride is taking logistics in a new direction with intelligent freight mobility solutions that are both autonomous and electric for shippers and carriers.

While a lot of attention is given to passenger electric vehicles, Einride thinks that leveraging autonomous technology in the freight transport industry could provide more benefits by reducing the CO2 emissions from diesel-powered trucks. Founded in 2016 by Filip Lilja, Linnea Kornehed, and Robert Falck, Einride makes autonomous and electric freight trucks for the transportation of goods, as well as provides a freight mobility platform.

As part of its US launch, Einride told Reuters that it has already started operating a fleet of 20 Einride Pods – its electric self-driving truck without a driver cabin – at the Louisville headquarters of GE Appliances, a unit of Chinese home appliance maker Haier, which includes a sprawling manufacturing complex. For now, Einride trucks would operate inside customers’ facilities, which allows them to operate without the need for a backup human driver as they are on private property, Falck added.

In the meantime, Einride said that it’s working with U.S. regulators to “take this outside the fence and operate on public roads as well.” “There is huge potential for automation and electrification in the U.S. market and the next step for us scale up with our customers,” he said.

In May, Einride raised $110 million in a Series B round to invest in the company’s technology, continue delivering to customers, grow revenue, and expand internationally. Einride other customers include companies like Coca-Cola, Oatly, and Electrolux. Over the past five years, investors have poured billions of dollars into self-driving technology for the freight trucks market.

Below is a video of Einride Pod in action.