Thomas Wasson
4 min read
Autonomous freight technology company Einride recently announced that founder and CEO Robert Falck will be appointed executive chairman of the board effective immediately. CFO Roozbeh Charll will take over as CEO. The leadership shuffle comes as Transport Topics/Bloomberg report the company is considering an IPO in the U.S.
Falck, founder and executive chairman, said in the news release: “Einride started with the simple idea that freight could be done differently, and better. That idea has become a company, a platform, and a global shift in motion. After nearly a decade of building as CEO, it’s time to shift my focus to where I can create the most long-term value. As Executive Chairman, I will focus on the overall company strategy, including ensuring that Einride can go public when we find the time is right.”
Einride, based in Sweden, was founded in 2016 and originally focused on freight solutions for electric and autonomous vehicles. By 2019, the company began autonomous truck commercial operations on Swedish roads and touts one of the largest fleets of heavy-duty electric trucks across the U.S., Europe and the United Arab Emirates.
TechCrunch by way of PitchBook reports Einride has raised $654.26 million in funds to date with its last round in 2022 to the tune of $500 million. However, to take off, the company needs additional funding. TechCrunch wrote, “Falck said that the company would need to raise more working capital — another $100 million would put it ‘in a good path forward’ — to reach the scale necessary to hit profitability.”
My first impressions of Einride were of its autonomous terminal tractor fleet during a presentation at Manifest about autonomous vehicles. I learned the company is a major player in the European AV space. The move to an IPO in the U.S. makes sense due to a more favorable AV regulatory environment. So far it doesn’t seem to be too much of a concern for AV makers, as many are looking at European regulations when creating their autonomous vehicle safety cases – the logic being if it’s good enough for stricter Europe, it’ll be fine in the U.S. market where self-reporting reigns.
The Mongolian steppes are again bustling, but this time it’s a horde of 100 5G autonomous electric mining trucks. The trucks are part of a collaboration among Chinese based Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group, State Grid Smart Internet of Vehicles and telecom Huawei to tackle the hostile operation environment, where temperatures can reach minus 40 F. Interestingly, that is also minus 40 C. The trucks can haul a load of 90 metric tons, or 198,416 pounds, with the driver cabin being removed and replaced with a 568 kWh battery. It’s the first autonomous mining truck in China that doesn’t have a driver’s cabin.
