Estonian freight autonomy startup Clevon just revealed the results of their year-long on-road trial with DHL Express Estonia for commercial last-mile delivery. Here’s a look at Clevon, an early player in the driverless delivery space, and a summary of the project outcomes.
Not So Young
My self-appointed mission is to know about every player working in the driverless domain. Somehow, I missed Clevon until recently. In an interview with Clevon’s CEO/Founder Sander Agur, he noted that in 2017 a team was created inside their parent Cleveron that started development of what became their current autonomous platform. Cleveron is a Smart Locker company which has a wide range of customers including Walmart. Cleveron profits funded initial operations of Clevon, to the tune of $8M to date. In 2022 Clevon spun out of Cleveron, with about 40 employees coming over to staff the new company.
Overall, not a bad way to start a startup. The company plans to raise an A Round by the end of this year.
As can be seen by the cover image, the Clevon road robot has no driver compartment. The autonomous robot carrier (ARC) is 98 inches long, 45 inches wide, and 61 inches high. Top speed is 31 mph with a maximum payload of 330 pounds.
Clevon builds their own hardware and software. The first-generation system launched in 2018 relying on tele-operation of the ARCs. This has now evolved to “tele-supervision,” in which the ARC always does the driving but under the supervision of a remote human monitor. So, this is not yet a self-driving system.
Tele-operation makes sense in low-speed street operations as long as the cellular service is adequate. The company says the current system is “an important milestone to offer commercial services and a step closer to profitability and achieving a higher level of autonomy.”
Mr. Agur notes that development of an autonomous version is underway, and they are planning to demonstrate high level autonomous operations in a suburban domain in nine months.
A fleet of 20 Clevon ARCs have so far traveled 30,000 miles on public roads in Europe, with 14 robots are driving on public streets on a daily basis. In addition to Estonia, Clevon’s robots are active in the Lithuanian and Belgium last-mile delivery markets.
In 2022 Clevon set up their US offices in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex at the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone, operating six robots on US roads as well.
Getting Legal
Mr. Agur said that Clevon ARCs have a legal basis to operate in five states so far: Arizona, New Hampshire, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia. He noted that in 19 additional states only minor amendments to laws are needed for Clevon ARCs to operate.
In Europe, Clevon states that in 2020, they were “the first to go unmanned on public roads across all 50 km/h speed zone roads.”
The DHL Challenge
DHL Express Estonia has for some time had an ongoing program to explore the deployment of autonomous vehicles on a significant scale to reduce the operational costs associated with last-mile delivery. Key motivators are to balance cost, energy efficiency, and weight considerations. DHL Group has a mission to achieve zero emission logistics by 2050.
DHL Express Estonia evaluated several vendors and chose Clevon as its partner for the implementation of commercial last-mile deliveries on the public roads in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. The case study notes that given the light weight of the ARC, energy consumption in ideal situations is a very attractive 42 Wh/km.
In the first phase of the initiative in August 2022, the Clevon ARC using the “CargoBox” top application conducted public road tests delivering DHL Express Estonia’s internal packages between the company’s three offices in Tallinn.
Once satisfied with this initial trial, 18 commercial customers across Tallinn volunteered to receive their deliveries with the robot. Clevon also cooperated with the City of Tallinn to deliver DHL packages in the historic Old Town, which has strict entry regulations for regular vans and cars. The case study noted that “the Clevon ARC navigated the urban environments and old town narrow streets and pedestrian areas easily, helping to reduce emissions and noise pollution in the area.”
Here’s the way it all worked. The regular DHL van transported packages from the depot to the designated meeting point, covering the middle-mile. At the meeting point, the courier transferred the packages to Clevon’s robots, which then traveled the last-mile (3-5 km)
to make the delivery. DHL noted that “this dynamic collaboration reduced the kilometers traveled with empty cargo, minimizing wasted resources and increasing overall operational efficiency.”
The Clevon website speaks to the outcomes of the trial: during over 200 days of operation across 12 months, over 1200 parcels were delivered while traveling 4400 miles in all weather conditions. Notably, there were zero safety incidents.
Operations are continuing, seeking further opportunities to increase performance across all factors.
Kristina Laaneots, Managing Director, DHL Express Estonia, provided their perspective. She said, “Our collaboration with Clevon began a year ago, and during this time, we’ve made significant progress through testing and learning. We firmly believe that autonomous delivery solutions are the future of the logistics industry, and our early adoption gives us a competitive edge. I’m excited about the potential of expanding our service into a fleet of Clevon’s ARCs in Estonia and beyond.” Discussing the role of autonomy, Ms. Laaneots noted, “We have only taken the first steps in integrating self-driving technology, and already we see the great potential of it – the results speak for themselves. It’s no secret that the labor market is a challenge as package volumes keep growing. Humans will always have a crucial role in logistics. Still, robots can fill in where we need extra help and increase efficiency in delivering packages quickly to the door in a user- and environmentally-friendly way. Clevon’s ARCs are fully electric, aligning perfectly with our sustainability goals.”
Moving Forward
Based on our discussion, CEO Agur is quite excited about establishing and growing operations in the U.S. while simultaneously continuing European operations. He told me that, based on successful proof-of-concept projects, contracts have been signed with several delivery and grocery companies. The first US commercial delivery service is now up and running with PostNet Northlake in Northlake, Texas.
Full scale manufacturing of the Clevon ARCs is planned to begin in 2025.
Yet another player to watch as the on-street logistics space heats up.
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