Meet Einride and the T-Pod
Ask Einride what they think about the road freight industry and the answer you'll get is pretty much straightforward: it's oudated. Luckily, the T-Pod is here to change the paradigm.
All-electric, allergic to humans, autonomous and deployable in fleets, Einride's T-Pod wants to solve the world's current hauling issues for good.
Instantly noticeable is the T-Pod's shorter length as compared to a standard tractor trailer. At 23 ft (roughly 7 m) long, the truck has no cabin but at full load will still tip the scales at 20 tons, which makes it a Class 8 truck, according to The Verge.
Although it can operate on its own, each T-Pod can also be remotely controlled by a human supervisor who can in turn command a fleet of T-Pods depending on the transport's complexity and size. Think of Age of Empires, but instead of villagers, you're controlling electric trucks that can be dispatched where they're needed.
According to Einride, a T-Pod's cargo capacity is in the region of 15 pallets of goods that can be hauled for 124 miles. Any trip beyond that requires a charging infrastructure that is also underway.
The initial plan is to have 200 T-Pods run between the cities of Gothenburg and Helsingborg, Sweden by 2020, with Einride's forecast talking about a yearly capacity of 2,000,000 pallets.
Einride | Introducing the T-Pod from O on Vimeo.