Driverless truck begins making daily deliveries in Sweden

JONKOPING, Sweden — A driverless electric truck began making deliveries Wednesday in Sweden.

In what's been described as a world first, the truck made its debut with daily scheduled deliveries on a public road.

Robert Falck, CEO and founder of Einride, the Swedish start-up behind the innovation, said the company was in partnership talks with major suppliers to help scale production and deliver orders.

The company plans to apply next year for more public route permits and was planning to expand in the United States.

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"From my perspective we are the first in the world to actually do this on a public road and I mean history is created in small steps. The first flight of the Wright brothers was 300 meters, this stretch of road is actually 300 meters as well, so we are taking leaps pushing history forward and, like I said, it's happening in small steps but this is a giant step for autonomous electric transport," said Falck.

The truck with no cab resembles the helmet of a Star Wars stormtrooper. "It's built for transport and not for the driver itself because as you can see we don't have a cab, we don't have a driver in the vehicle so it's actually the first transport vehicle that is built and developed for purely autonomous electric," said Falck.

The driverless design is aimed at reducing road freight operating costs by around 60 percent compared to a diesel truck with a driver.

The company's ambition is to have 200 driverless vehicles in operation by the end of 2020.

NBC