Einride and Nvidia announce autonomous electric truck collaboration
Swedish logistics technology company Einride is expanding its collaboration with Nvidia. It plans to further develop its solution for autonomous electric trucks on the Nvidia Hyperion platform.
Autonomous electric truck by Einride (archive image)
Image: Einride
A collaboration between Nvidia and Einride has existed since the end of 2020: at that time, the Swedes announced plans to use the Nvidia Drive AGX Orin computing platform for the next generation of their autonomous electric trucks. Einride planned to utilise the Orin system-on-chip (SoC) for onboard computing power to further develop its prototype, referred to as the “Pod”, from its then-current use in restricted areas towards autonomous driving on rural roads and motorways.
While the initial focus was on a high-performance onboard computer – critical for real-time driving decisions in autonomous vehicles – Einride now aims to adopt Nvidia’s technology as a complete reference architecture for Level 4 autonomy. The selected Nvidia Hyperion platform includes not only computing hardware but also a Level 4-oriented combination of compute, sensor technology, and software and safety architecture. Nvidia has since established this strategy with other automotive partners as well.
Einride leads development efforts
Einride emphasises that it remains fully in charge of developing its autonomous driving technology, known as Einride Driver. The company designs, builds, and operates the autonomous driving system from start to finish, including safety validation, regulatory approval, and contractually agreed customer deployments. Meanwhile, Nvidia provides the underlying computing platform and AI development tools that support the system.
“We have the customers, the operational experience and the technology. Building the next generation of the Einride Driver on the NVIDIA Hyperion platform, will enable us to scale autonomous deployment across a freight network that’s already serving customers today,” said Henrik Green, Chief Technology Officer at Einride.
“Autonomous trucking represents one of the clearest opportunities to improve the safety and efficiency of global freight,” said Rishi Dhall, Vice President of Automotive at Nvidia. “By building on NVIDIA Hyperion with the NVIDIA Halos safety system and using NVIDIA Cosmos and Blackwell infrastructure, Einride can accelerate the development and validation of its autonomous-driving technology and scale deployments across its growing freight network.”
From steered to autonomous electric trucks
According to its own statements, Einride currently operates hundreds of electric trucks for major companies in the USA, Europe, and the Middle East, including autonomous trucks already deployed under customer contracts. Based on existing customer demand on the platform, Einride expects this fleet to grow to between 1,500 and 2,000 vehicles by 2028. To achieve this, the company recently ordered 500 Tesla Semi trucks. Einride estimates that around 80 per cent of customer demand is suitable for automation in the medium term and is continually advancing its technology to meet this need.
Einride has also developed two autonomous electric trucks in-house, though these have not yet reached series production. In recent days, Einride has been testing one of the prototypes in collaboration with Lidl near Kassel. There, the vehicle covers a route of approximately 400 metres between a logistics centre and a store. The trial is expected to be expanded to a route serving multiple stores in the future.
Einride recently described its dual approach in an investor presentation: initially, conventional electric trucks and the digital platform Einride Saga AI will build a growing customer base and collect as much real-world operational data as possible. With each additional shipment, the data volume, utilisation, and thus the economic viability of the platform will increase. Once Einride has established a specific use case for autonomous operations, the autonomous capacity will then be scaled beyond the existing customer base. For Einride’s customers, this will ultimately mean they can increasingly utilise automated transport on the same platform at a lower cost per shipment.