Remote steering the Einride autonomous vehicle from Barcelona, over a distance of 2500 km, using 5G-connectivity. That was how Einride’s year started, teaming up with Ericsson, to showcase its new teleoperation solution during Mobile World Congress.

Shortly after, in March, Einride reached a new milestone, when it received a permit from the Swedish Transport Agency to operate the Einride autonomous vehicle on a public road in Jönköping, Sweden, at its partner and customer DB Schenker’s facility. The world premiere took place May 15th, the first time ever a driverless, electric truck operated on a public road.

“This was a seismic event that was felt throughout the transportation industry. We demonstrated that driverless, electric transport was possible on public road, and it was done in Sweden, not in Asia or the US. I can’t begin to describe how proud I felt of our team that day”, says Robert Falck.

In June, the Einride autonomous vehicle transported goods to its customer retailer Lidl Sweden’s pop-up store during Kista Mobility Day. It was the first time the Einride autonomous vehicle was operated in an urban environment. The next big milestone came after the summer, when Einride closed its $ 25 million series A investment round, led by investors EQT Ventures and NordicNinja VC.

“The funding laid the groundwork to take Einride to the next level, which means continuing to drive demand for electric transport, delivering on our technology road map and meeting rapidly increasing customer demand in Sweden and in other key markets like the US. To accomplish all of this we need to build a great team with exceptional talent and that is something we have been hard at work doing throughout the year. We have doubled the size of our team since January,” Robert continues.

Einride has also added several customers during the year, from Michelin Group to Svenska Retursystem, Port of Helsingborg and Coca-Cola European Partners. “Our customers are heroes. They lead the way towards sustainable transport in their respective industries”, says Robert.  

Einride has continued to drive demand for sustainable transport during 2019. The company was present at several big events in Europe and US during 2019, from the mega tech event CES in Las Vegas and logistics forum Movin’On in Montreal to Slush in Finland, the leading tech and startup event in Northern Europe. Einride also won gold in European Startup Prize and has been featured in thousands of articles in media as well as being named “Game Changer 2020” in a new report by CB Insights, a cutting edge research and technology firm.