Overview
- The companies announced on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026 that a cab‑less SAE Level 4 electric truck is now operating daily on a public route in Edermünde under a first‑of‑its‑kind permit from Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA).
- The vehicle runs one shift a day, five days a week between a Lidl warehouse/distribution centre and a Lidl store, carrying about 45 pallets per shift on the short commercial route.
- The truck has no driver or on‑board safety operator and is remotely monitored by a human supervisor who may perform low‑speed interventions up to about 4 mph (6 km/h) when needed.
- Technical details supplied by Einride note the vehicle was built by a contract manufacturer in the Netherlands and uses a sensor suite of nine exterior cameras, six radars and four Lidars to detect and respond to road conditions.
- Einride and Lidl say they will expand the route into a multi‑stop "milk run" and discuss wider Schwarz Group deployments while framing the project as a response to driver shortages and a step toward lower‑emission, more resilient store logistics in a tightly regulated German market.