Ten million euros for driverless trucks

Fernride from Munich wants to enable truck driving without a driver in the cab. The start-up is now raising several million euros.

Fernride receives 7.1 million euros in its Series A financing round. Business Angel will be the CTO of Blablacar, Olivier Bonnet. Also participating are Munich-based VC 10x Group, Speedinvest (including Tier and Wefox), Berlin-based VC Fly Ventures, US deep tech fund Promus Ventures and the Initiative for Industrial Innovators, which is part of UnternehmerTUM founded by Susanne Klatten. Fernride is also receiving funding for further research and has raised a total of more than ten million euros.

Fernride's vision sounds a bit like simulator games for the games console: Trucks without a driver in the cab - remote-controlled from the office - are to travel the roads of the Republic. To this end, the Munich-based company has developed a retrofit kit to operate the accelerator and brake remotely. Twelve cameras are to guarantee an all-round view for the driver in the control center. An AI is to support the human and learn from him at the same time. Because not all vehicles are in use at the same time, one person is supposed to be able to control up to 25 vehicles.

Fernride is initially advertising rides on the factory floor. Up to 100,000 vehicles would never leave the premises, the founders say. Among them are forklifts and yard vehicles. Costs are said to be cut by 85 percent because a person is no longer needed for each vehicle.