Summary Reader Response Draft #1(Electric Truck Pod)

The article “Drone Truck startup Einride unveils new driverless vehicles for autonomous freight hauling” (2020) introduces the features and uses of the Autonomous Electric Transport (AET) — a fleet of vehicles aimed to reduce transport costs by 60% and CO2 emissions by 90%. 

 

The AET's design is focused on its polished, white, driverless pods with seamless lines and its otherworldly feel. They come without steering wheels, pedals, windshields, and can be controlled remotely by a human operator autonomously to overcome off-road driving issues.  

The AET consists of an electric drivetrain, autonomous drive sensors and proprietary telematics hardware that interfaces with the freight mobility platform. These features can be customised based on the consumer’s needs and operational demands.

According to Andrew Hawkins (2020), the vehicles come in four different versions with similar weight and payload capacity; however, AET 3 and 4 can achieve a higher maximum speed when compared to AET 1 and 2. Additionally, the four variants were designed to operate in different conditions independently. AET 1 was designed to operate inside a set region, whereas AET 2 employs teleoperation to travel outside of the predefined area. Meanwhile, AET 3 was intended to operate under rural conditions, and AET 4 was geared to run on highways.