The major challenges in the logistics industry today are the extreme truck driver shortage, growing CO2 emissions, and tight profit margins. These problems have already had a significant impact on society and are forecasted to continue increasing. For example, the current shortage of 400,000 truck drivers in Europe alone is projected to increase to 2,000,000 truck drivers by 2026.Despite autonomous driving being the obvious solution to these challenges, many attempts to introduce autonomy have failed. None of the current offerings provide an immediate, coherent, and economically reasonable solution. But now companies are actually making it work for customers.That is the case with FERNRIDE, a leading German autonomous, electric trucking company, has secured roughly €29 million in Series A funding to accelerate the transition towards automated and sustainable logistics by creating the world’s leading human-machine collaboration technology.The latest funding will be used to scale FERNRIDE’s operations with existing and new customers globally and boost the technological development of their unique approach to human-assisted autonomy.Founded in 2019, FERNRIDE’s unique approach addresses these industry challenges for its customers today, unlocking the benefits and reliable service of driverless operations from day one. The company has developed an end-to-end solution that can be seamlessly integrated into live operations without interruptions or downtime.“Our customers benefit from our human-assisted approach to autonomy from the very start of our collaboration,” says Hendrik Kramer, CEO, and Co-Founder of FERNRIDE

For instance, in July 2021, Ford Motor and Argo AI collaborated with Lyft Inc. to launch a self-driving ride-hailing service.

Meanwhile, EV focused companies such as Faraday Future, Fisker, and Better Place have failed, while in autonomy, Ford and Volkswagen invested $3.6 billion into Argo AI before it closed its doors and Uber gave up on any autonomous aspirations.