The employees of the discounter should get a driver service, only without someone at the wheel.
The goal: the office.
Bad Wimpfen - Lidl wants to use an autonomous, electrically powered shuttle.
The discounter presented the vehicle in its headquarters in Bad Wimpfen on Wednesday.
It is scheduled to go into operation in mid-2022 and bring employees from the train station to the office.
This makes Lidl one of the first companies to operate a self-driving e-shuttle on public roads.
The mobile is a joint research project with Heilbronn University and the FZI Research Center for Computer Science in Karlsruhe.
Within the project, the operation of the shuttle is to be continuously tested and optimized under real conditions.
E-mobility: Discounter is testing self-driving shuttle bus for employees
“Lidl is open to this new technology.
That makes me very happy.
As a state, we are actively committed to the development of self-driving buses and are testing their use in pilot projects throughout the state, ”said Winfried Hermann (Greens), Transport Minister of Baden-Württemberg, according to a press release.
"I'm already excited to see how the employees will accept the autonomous shuttle."
The vehicle for up to six passengers reaches up to 20 kilometers per hour, one battery charge (duration: five to six hours) should be sufficient for three hours or a distance of around 70 kilometers.
The vehicle will take around ten minutes to cover the 1.6-kilometer route from Bad Wimpfen train station to Lidl's headquarters.
Lidl already offers around 400 branches e-charging stations for free use by customers.
But competitors such as Aldi, Edeka and Co. are also building more and more e-charging stations on their parking spaces.
Recently there was anger because of "electricity scroungers".
(frs)