Lidl has started using a cab-less autonomous electric truck for regular store deliveries in Germany, assigning it a daily replenishment route between its Edermünde distribution centre and a nearby store.

The truck, supplied by Swedish freight technology company Einride, operates at SAE Level 4 under a permit from Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority, or KBA.

The vehicle operates without a driver or safety operator on board. Einride and Lidl said the KBA permit is the first of its kind in Germany for a cab-less Level 4 truck operating as part of daily logistics.

The truck has space for 15 Euro pallets and can make up to three trips a day. Lidl said it will cover all dry-goods deliveries on the designated route during the four-month project.

The vehicle can move more than 3,000 pallets over that period. “With this innovative project, we are testing a technological milestone step by step and safely in real-world operations,” Thomas Dangelmayer, head of operational logistics at Lidl Germany, said.

Lidl is using the project to assess how autonomous transport can be incorporated into its existing logistics operations. Its September 15 announcement did not provide figures on cost savings, delivery times, vehicle utilisation, or productivity gains, and the retailer has not announced a wider rollout as part of the current deployment.

Lidl and Einride have also linked the project to driver shortages and the continuity of goods movements. The International Road Transport Union estimated in June 2026 that about 502,000 truck-driver positions were unfilled across Europe in 2025, representing 13% of positions in the markets covered by its survey.

Source link