GE Appliances, a Haier company has a place in the personal histories of many Kentuckians. After all, it has long been one of the area's largest employers.
But if you travel to the company's Appliance Park facility in Louisville today, you'll see that the appliance maker has something downright futuristic on its hands: Windowless autonomous trucks.
About 12 feet tall, 9 feet wide and 25 feet long, these vehicles are driving around delivering materials between the buildings at Appliance Park.
These trucks are part of a new partnership that GE Appliances has formed with Swedish freight technology company Einride. Its business model is freight mobility as a service and the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
For now, this is just a pilot test of the products, but there are hopes that it grows into more, officials from both companies told me recently. It gives GE Appliances a chance to test out some new technology and work on its sustainability goals while giving Einride a foothold in the U.S. market.
Ideally, on an average shift at GEA, these trucks will run about 14 trips — taking parts from AP 4 to AP 1 buildings, Harry Chase, senior director of central materials for GEA told me in a recent interview where I got to see the trucks in action.
The vehicles can be controlled via remote control or can operate autonomously. To start, they'll be more remote controlled but will gradually be transitioned into autonomous operation.
With this implementation, the company is looking to cut down on tasks that are dirty, dull, dangerous or difficult, Chase said.
In other areas where Einride has been operating, it has gradually ramped up the amount of autonomy its vehicles have. At one industrial facility, for instance, its vehicles started out with a 60/40 split between remote and autonomous operation, favoring remote, explained Niklas Reinedahl, managing director for Einride in the U.S.
He declined to name the specific facility. That has grown to 97% autonomous today. The trucks operate with cameras and censors that will halt them in the event they encounter something unexpected, he said. There's also a remote driver that can address situations as they come up.
"We always keep the humans in the loop," he said.
Under this agreement, Einride will not only be providing and operating these trucks at the 750-acre Appliance Park but also will be providing the company with driver-controlled electric vehicles which will carry goods between Appliance Park and GEA's Kentucky Logistical Center, at 6611 Shepherdsville Road.
The electric trucks are part of a company effort to reduce its carbon footprint, Chase told me. As a result of this partnership, GEA is expected to save 970 tons of CO2 emissions within the first year, playing a key role in its global commitment to reduce its environmental footprint by utilizing a state-of-the-art supply chain.
GEA claims this will be the first time in history an autonomous and electric truck is live and operating on U.S. soil. That's a hard claim to vet, particularly if you start debating the finer points of autonomy. But, we can say that this partnership will represent Einride’s first installation with its vehicles, or Pods, in the U.S. And Einride also will be implementing electric transportation solutions at GEA’s locations in Tennessee and Georgia.
“At GE Appliances, we believe in always finding a better way and striving to be on the forefront of innovation,” said Bill Good, vice president of manufacturing at GE Appliances, in a news release. “Sustainability and cost-efficiency is a prerequisite for implementing innovation into our business strategy. The partnership and technology investment with Einride is allowing us to deploy safer, more sustainable, and cost-effective solutions for the movement and transportation of material.”
“This marks an important milestone for the freight industry in the U.S., as it’s the first time an autonomous, electric, and remote-operated pod system is being installed on this scale in North America,” Robert Falck, CEO at Einride, said in the release. “The system will allow GEA to reduce its environmental footprint and reap the benefits of Einride's world-leading technology.”
