A trucker’s life is a lonely one. Driving on empty roads for hundred of kilometers, all alone (though this may not be the case in India). They spend a huge amount of time away from family and friends. In the present scenario, with one trucker controlling one truck, the productivity is also not optimum as the driver waits for loading and unloading of cargo. The nature of work also affects the gender ratio in the industry with only 6% female truckers in the USA.
Then we have autonomous trucks in development which would improve the productivity and profitability of trucking companies, but what happens if an autonomous truck just stops confused in a scenario not programmed into its system. Well, we need to then send a driver to that location and get it resolved. This would be a time consuming activity. A Swedish transport solutions start up, Einride has found the solution to these vexed issues.
Einride has developed a system wherein, one operator sits is a control room and remotely monitors up to 10 autonomous cargo pods operating in various locations. In case an autonomous pod gets in a sticky situation, like a difficult parking, the pod sends a request to the operator to take control. The operator then takes remote control of the vehicle using a remote steering and getting various live feed from the vehicle displayed visually on a number of screens. This kind of arrangement, makes the truckers life a 9 to 5 job and opens it up tp several women also.
Further, the operator does not waste any time while the autonomous cargo pods are being loaded/ unloaded or charged before the next delivery. Einride claims that this technology reduces cost of transportation by approximately 30% while improving operator productivity by 200%.
However, such a remote monitoring and control will require robust real-time video and data transmission, managed through a secure channel over often insecure infrastructure. Einride is laying the technical foundation for swift and easy switching between vehicles as well as the ongoing scaling of this functionality. Not only can the system switch between monitored vehicles, but also between operators in different geographical locations, increasing the flexibility of the system exponentially
Currently with Einride’s Freight Mobility Platform, shippers are able to track their entire fleets in real time and optimize routes and schedules for cost and emissions reduction. The platform also provides recommendations on where to introduce low- or zero-emissions transport options into the network.
Though the company aims at providing up to 1 to 10 control, presently it is demonstrating a 1 to 2 monitoring and control at a client site. That means, one operator can monitor and control two autonomous cargo pods.
Einride is a Swedish technology company that develops and provides freight transport solutions based on electric and autonomous vehicles. It was founded in 2016 by Robert Falck, Linnéa Kornehed and Filip Lilja, and became the world’s first company to operate an autonomous, all-electric freight vehicle on a commercial route on a public road. Recently, the company launched the Einride Freight Mobility Platform, a cloud-native transport execution system for autonomous, electric and traditional road transportation. With the platform, customers can use real-time information and actionable insights to implement sustainable, cost-efficient and high performing transport logistics.
The Transport Journal 