Dusseldorf. The discounter Lidl is the first German retailer to test deliveries to branches with autonomous trucks. The food retailer has received approval from the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), as the Handelsblatt previously learned.
Lidl wants to present the project at the IAA Transportation commercial vehicle trade fair on Tuesday. However, there are still a few questions that need to be clarified before deployment.
Logistics in food retail is considered complex and expensive due to the fast timing and high volumes. This process could be standardized with autonomous trucks.
The battery-electric truck does not have a driver's cab. The vehicle can deliver packaged and unrefrigerated food such as pasta, sugar or canned goods from the goods depot to the store. The technology partner in the pilot project is the Swedish start-up Einride.
The self-driving vehicles are also an answer to the current driver shortage: in Germany alone there will be a shortage of more than 100,000 truck and bus drivers by 2030. “Trucks with autonomous driving functions can offer a solution to this problem in the future,” says Serhan Yildirim, head of logistics at the Lidl parent Schwarz Group.
The advantage of the project with Einride lies in its early implementation, says Yildirim. “We are already bringing the technology into real operations today,” he explains. In this way, the company can create the conditions to smoothly integrate these solutions into the existing overall system.
Lidl is considered a pioneer in the food retail sector: no German competitor has yet tested autonomous delivery to a branch. The drugstore chain dm transported goods between two warehouses in a pilot project together with the manufacturer Iveco - but only partially autonomously with a driver in the cockpit. The supermarket chain Rewe tested the delivery of orders to end customers in e-commerce using a completely autonomous VW van. But here too there was a safety driver on board.
In the first step, Lidl will only use the self-driving truck for one route. The vehicle transports goods in Edermünde near Kassel in Hesse from the local goods distribution center to the nearby Lidl branch. The route is only 400 meters long. In addition, a car with a driver behind the wheel must follow, which is what the KBA specifies in the pilot project. But there is no safety driver in the truck.
With the so-called “last mile”, Lidl tackled the most complex section first, says Thomas Dangelmayer, who heads operational logistics at Lidl. “This is the toughest test from which we can learn a lot,” he emphasizes. Among other things, travel times, the precision when approaching the loading ramps and how the truck harmonizes with the processes in the distribution center and the branch are measured.
After completing the pilot project, which is scheduled to run for four months, Lidl wants to connect several branches on longer routes in a second step, reports Dangelmayer. “As a promising building block for sovereign transport logistics, autonomous vehicles can complement our existing logistics partnerships in the long term,” he predicts.
However, it will still be many years before a nationwide roll-out occurs, if it happens at all. Lidl has 3,250 branches in Germany, which are supplied from 39 goods distribution centers.
In Europe, there are fewer than 100 self-driving delivery vans and fewer than ten self-driving trucks in operation, according to consultancy McKinsey. In China and the USA the number is significantly higher.
Many European manufacturers want to produce series-ready autonomous trucks in series by the end of the decade. They are aiming for so-called Level 4. Assistance systems are divided into five levels: from lane departure warning (Level 1) to fully autonomous driving (Level 5). Today, Level 2 trucks are common. These vehicles can drive alone in some situations, but the driver must be able to intervene at any time.
From level 4 onwards, all vehicle occupants become passengers and the truck drives itself. However, the vehicle must then be equipped with more sensors as well as additional radar and camera systems. For safety reasons, redundant systems are installed for brakes, for example. This drives up development and production costs for manufacturers.
Lidl partner Einride already carries out autonomous deliveries for customers in Europe and the USA. Nevertheless, the test at Lidl is of particular importance, says company boss Roozbeh Charli: "The German approval process is one of the strictest in the world. Overcoming this hurdle here gives us the foundation to scale with confidence."
