Vision Shop: Building the future of freight mobility

Einride wouldn’t exist as a company if it weren’t for its imaginative spirit.

It was this creative mindset, along with conviction – to the belief that shipping can be done in a more intelligent way – that enabled the company to navigate through its early years. 

Within the coming months, the first batch of Einride's latest autonomous vehicle will be deployed in the US for Einride’s customer GE Appliances. And already today, Einride’s connected electric trucks and the digital platform Einride Saga are enabling a growing number of customers to accelerate their transition towards fully electric shipping.

To ensure that this spirit continues to guide Einride as it continues to build on its vision of bringing transformative digital, electric and autonomous solutions to the world, the company established Vision Shop in 2021. 

“Vision Shop is a key component of how we have created the most cost-competitive, long-term solutions for freight, with plans to effectively scale them,” says Einride’s CEO and Founder, Robert Falck.

The facility in Gothenburg is an especially “hands-on” work environment – a space where teams can build prototypes, modify hardware, engineer software, run experiments, and put their imagination to the test.

Vision Shop video

Chief Product Officer Ellen Kugelberg says Vision Shop is a place where tinkering and exploration is encouraged, as this helps drive resilient and impactful solutions.

“We have already done well over 100 product improvements, so it’s a place of real creativity and advanced engineering,” she says. “And you can absolutely feel that when you’re there: the space, the people, the spirit. It’s all part of concretizing our vision.”

The company’s founding engineer and Interim SVP of Technology, Tomas Ohlson, says projects can be widely varied, from making the autonomous vehicle's design bigger, better and bolder to creating a brand new test vehicle designed to encompass a higher category of autonomous driving (known by Einride as AET 4).

“The hardware team is also working on our next-generation chassis. It will be the world's first of its kind, built from the ground up for the purposes of electric and autonomous freight transport," says Ohlson. "And it's all happening at Vision Shop.”

Partners, customers and the broader community got a glimpse of this innovative space at last year’s launch event, the Einride November Release, where Vision Shop would be the stage.

“In addition to highlighting key milestones and announcing new products for the first time, Einride showcased its plans for deploying intelligent movement at scale,” says Robert Falck. “When it came to the question of where we should make these announcements, we figured there’s nowhere better than Vision Shop – a place that really represents our bold ambitions.”

“We want people to peer behind the curtain and see where our hard-working teams tackle challenges, unlock improvements and envision big.”

So what’s ahead?

“Einride never stops. It is part of our DNA to constantly evolve and adapt based on the needs of the world around us.” says Ellen. “This type of engineering and cross-functional collaboration is always going to continue being an incredibly important part of what Einride brings to the world.”

By driving and expanding Einride’s digital, electric and autonomous innovations, Vision Shop has played a key role in helping the company unlock new possibilities and even make history. In 2022, Einride became the world’s first company to operate a cabless autonomous vehicle on a US public road – a key milestone for American transportation.

The pilot took place in the town of Selmer in Tennessee. During a public Q&A session, locals gathered to share their astonishment at what they were seeing, with one local remarking: “The future has truly arrived. Never thought we would see something like this in Selmer of all places”. 

This astonishment is possible thanks to Vision Shop, and the role it plays turning ideas into something tangible.

To see the latest products and to see how the future of shipping is being built today, be sure to watch the Einride November Release.

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