Einride has received approval for autonomous driving in Germany. It will serve Lidl.

The Swedish startup Einride claimed to be the first company in Germany to receive approval for autonomous driving on German roads. Since this refers to a Level 4 system according to SAE — fully autonomous operation under normal weather and road conditions — the permission was issued through a completely different process than that for Tesla’s FSD (Supervised) system, which is a Level 2+ mechanism.

Einride, EinLKW, Neroute

Einride will use one truck to transport goods between a Lidl warehouse, a distribution center, and a store within the same chain. The trips will take place on public roads, with the startup referring to it explicitly as “a road” in singular form [hence our subtitle – edit]. The vehicle will have no driver or on-site supervisor (it doesn’t even have a cabin for one), but according to other reports, someone will monitor it remotely.

To be allowed on public roads, the vehicle needed formal approval from Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA). Such permission opens doors widely in many European and UNECE countries, especially since Germany is the largest transportation market on the Old Continent. Both Einride and Schwarz Group hope for “further expansion of the route,” meaning serving multiple destinations with a single vehicle and trip (source).

Einride vehicles. This promotional startup (on the right) and those that perform the most demanding tasks (on the left)

Few people know that tests of autonomous vehicles could also take place in Poland. An amendment to the Road Traffic Act extended electric vehicles' access to bus lanes until January 1, 2028, and simultaneously established the conditions under which autonomous driving tests could be conducted. The vehicle operator-owner must obtain approval from the Institute of Road Transport, pay the fee (20,000 zlotys per voivodeship), and that’s it. A vehicle that drives itself does not need to be marked in any special way.

It should be remembered, however, that autonomous driving (SAE Level 4 or 5) is not the same as FSD (Supervised), which is a system that is by definition supervised, thus SAE Level 2. Tesla would only need to apply for approval from ITS if it wanted to introduce Robotaxi onto our roads, that is, vehicles controlled by FSD (Unsupervised), or non-supervised FSD.

Getting dropped off in the RoboTaxi!

Incredible first ride @Tesla_AI pic.twitter.com/AMxUBOxDJw

— Zack (@BLKMDL3) June 22, 2025

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