Fifteen pallets from Ederm\u00fcnde<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The vehicle holds 15 Euro pallets, and Lidl says it covers all dry-goods deliveries on this route. Over the four-month project, Lidl’s press release<\/a> estimates it could move more than 3,000 pallets. That number counts cargo, and a single trip carries up to 15 pallets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Goods leave Lidl’s administration and distribution center in Ederm\u00fcnde and go straight to one store close by. Lidl also claims a first for its sector. No other German grocery retailer, it says, has used a cabless autonomous electric truck for store deliveries on public roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Schwarz Group, Lidl’s parent, says its pilot also takes in site procedures and the drop-off at the store. A grocery chain needs the truck at the right dock on schedule, so those steps get tested too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Schwarz Group puts the truck’s top speed during the pilot at 25 kilometers per hour, about 15.5 miles per hour. Low speeds are common in early services, as with the autonomous shuttles in Higashiomi, Japan<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Level 4 sits one step below full automation on a six-level scale. At that level, the automated system handles the whole driving task inside a defined area and under set conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On its project page<\/a>, the group spells out the catch. A Level 4 vehicle does not drive itself everywhere or in every circumstance. Its approved operating area decides what it may do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Einride treats the German approval as a calling card. “Germany’s approval process is among the toughest in the world,” said Roozbeh Charli, the company’s chief executive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nobody rides in the truck, yet people remain part of every run. Schwarz Group says a so-called Local Operator accompanies the trip in a separate vehicle. During the first phase, that person also loads and unloads the goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Einride says its licensed teams continuously oversee autonomous operations through Saga, its AI-powered operating system. Schwarz Group, for its part, insists that humans stay in overall control of the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lidl links the project to complex supply chains and a lack of qualified drivers. Schwarz Group adds that automation could take routine tasks off drivers and free them for harder work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Intelligence creates efficiency, and that is the backbone for permanently reliable product availability,” said Thomas Dangelmayer, head of operational logistics at Lidl in Germany. Costs matter as well. A transport entrepreneur in Chile<\/a> says electric trucks there now match diesel on operating cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lidl runs 39 administration and distribution centers and more than 3,250 stores in Germany. The company calls that network the ideal setting for possible later scaling. Public roads are a harder setting than a closed site like the Xinjiang coal mine with its more than 200 driverless haul trucks<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the first route passes validation, Lidl plans a “milk run” at another location, meaning a delivery circuit with several stops. Its release gives no start date for that step. Einride says further deployments with Schwarz Group companies are under discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Cabless](\"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/cabless-truck-distribution-center-edermuende.jpg\")
A permit with tight borders<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The worker in another vehicle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Driver shortages drive the test<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Autonomous](\"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/autonomous-truck-lidl-store-night.jpg\")
Several stops at another site<\/h2>\n\n\n\n