The medieval city of Bern in Switzerland is well known for its narrow streets and ancient architecture. While this makes it an attractive place for residents and tourists, it can make parcel delivery a somewhat stressful affair.
However, thanks to an innovative new project from Loxo and Planzer, the city’s logistics challenges are being transformed with autonomous vehicles. Launched in September 2024, the ‘Planzer – Dynamic Micro-Hub with Loxo’ project is a two-year multiphase trial using a VW ID. Buzz commercial vehicle with full driving autonomy and two parcel swap boxes.
The vehicle has been retrofitted with Loxo’s Digital Driver navigation software, which can be embedded into almost any drive-by-wire vehicle to provide it with SAE Level 4 driving autonomy on public roads. According to Loxo, it was created to revolutionize the commercial vehicle sector – mainly the logistics industry.
Lara Amini, Loxo’s co-founder and chief business officer, explains, “Loxo was founded in 2018 when we had the idea to develop autonomous software that will enable every type of vehicle to drive autonomously. We quickly realized that the biggest business case would be in logistics and especially in the middle and last mile.
“We then developed the first prototype in 2021 – a very small delivery van called Loxo Alpha [see Loxo Alpha at end of article] – and it was the first autonomous vehicle without a safety driver on public roads in Europe. This validated that we could use our software on public roads and proved there was a use case for the technology.
“We wanted to move forward and see what we could do in the middle mile – we had been successful in the last mile but it has some complications because you still have to hand over the packages, which is difficult to do autonomously. So, we started to look at what the use case could be in the middle mile, and with the know-how and the impulse from Planzer, we started this project,” she continues.
Middle-mile challenges
For most delivery drivers, the intra-city middle mile – getting the parcels from the warehouse to the point of last-mile distribution – can be monotonous and challenging. According to Switzerland’s Federal Roads Office (ASTRA), the number of congestion hours increased by 22.7% in 2023 compared with 2022, while the number of vehicle kilometers rose by only 1.5%, suggesting the Swiss road network is near capacity.
“For most drivers, getting from the warehouse to the city and back again is a challenge, as the roads are usually congested. They want to do what they do best: delivering parcels,” comments Amini. “Logistics companies say that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find drivers, so it is important to support them so that they can do their job better, more efficiently and with pleasure.
“This was a big motivation for Planzer to develop their urban logistics using autonomous technology. So, with this project we have provided our retrofit vehicle with our autonomous technology, and it does the journey between the city hub and the exchange points we have chosen in Bern.”
There are 14 exchange points for use as ‘dynamic microhubs’ across a 67km network. These have been identified using two main criteria: density of orders and geographic location. “We will never enter the city center and the narrow streets with our large vehicle, so it was a challenge to find places where we have a density of orders but we also have a geographical location in the city center. This led us to identify 14 exchange points that were in the city but not in places that could potentially disturb citizens and businesses,” Amini adds.
During the two-year pilot phase, Loxo’s Digital Driver software will navigate the commercial vehicle from the Planzer central hub to these exchange points several times a day. There, the parcels will be reloaded onto small electric vehicles provided by Kyburz, and delivered to the end customers by Planzer’s last-mile delivery drivers.
“It is not our goal to exclude drivers in the future and to only have autonomous delivery vehicles, but this technology will enable our drivers to better focus on their jobs of delivering parcels and not just driving,” says Björn Lindner, head of innovation at Planzer. “In some cases, our drivers are really stressed by the traffic and by less space in the cities so they cannot focus on the delivery process of handing over the parcels.
“We think we can better support them with autonomous technologies, and in Bern this is what we are trying out – this shuttling of parcels into the city center is repetitive and is something we can automate in a good way to enable our drivers to do the last-mile delivery more effectively and have a better experience with the end consumers.
“In addition, this type of urban logistics has the potential to make better use of space in cities and contributes to reducing emissions for a livable urban space,” Lindner adds.
The technology
To ensure public safety, Loxo’s autonomous vehicle is fitted with six cameras, four lidars, one radar and dozens of ultrasonic sensors. The company has also ensured there are three different redundancies within its software to address any safety issues,
Amini explains, “The Loxo Digital Driver software comprises two pieces – the Loxo Fuser, which uses AI, and Loxo Guard, which acts as a co-pilot. We then have a third redundancy fallback option of the remote controller that is always there. In the first wave of the project, we also have a safety driver on board, so all in all the system is very safe.”
In phase one of the three-phase project, a safety driver will be behind the wheel of the delivery vehicle. If the driver doesn’t intervene for a set amount of time, they will move to the passenger seat. Then, in phase two, the driver must not intervene for several days in a row to allow them to be removed entirely and the project to move to phase three – Level 4 fully autonomous driving.
“This is planned over two years, but we expect to move quite quickly from phase one to phase two and then to phase three,” continues Amini. “We want to be in phase three for the longest period as this is where we will learn the most. We will start with one total delivery round per day, and then move to two and so on. We will progress slowly so we can ensure we’re learning the whole process.”
Transforming city logistics
For both Loxo and Planzer, the project in Bern aims to highlight the capabilities of autonomous delivery in logistics and to encourage others to follow suit.
“The topic of autonomous driving has been on our radar for the past three years or so and we were curious about how we can integrate this kind of technology into our operations,” explains Lindner. “We have many questions and we believe that by trialling these technologies we can get a better understanding and learn how to integrate the technology.
“For us, it is not the question of if this technology is coming – we totally believe this Level 4 autonomous driving is valid. It is more about where to find the best use case for it. We also want to understand our skill sets within the company and what new skills we will need to operate this kind of autonomous fleet. We also believe that starting this kind of project helps create awareness and helps people want to be part of this transformation.”
Once the trial in Bern is complete, Planzer will look to work with Loxo on the design and build of a more suitable delivery vehicle for long-term use. “The ID. Buzz is too small to make a positive business case and keep up with the number of parcels we’re delivering,” says Lindner. “In the future we plan to use one vehicle to autonomously deliver eight of our parcel exchange boxes, which we developed together with our partner Kyburz, to the city at the same time. Once it is well established in Bern, then of course we will look to expand the concept to other cities in Switzerland, such as Zurich, Basel and Geneva.”
Lindner says that being able to use the data from the trial is also a key outcome for Planzer. “Gathering data will enable us to better orchestrate our operations as we will be able to use not only our own data but also the data from our partners to really optimize the daily operations of the vehicle,” he explains. “For example, we’ll be able to understand the best time to enter the city for delivery and identify the right delivery points within the city where it doesn’t interfere with the rest of the traffic or the citizens.
“If we can better automate the logistics process, we can better integrate ourselves into the city environment when it comes to middle- and last-mile delivery. The challenge will be to get and use this data in the future, but we hope that with this pilot project we can stress the importance of gathering and sharing mobility data to better operate vehicles in urban environments.”
Initial feedback
Although the project has only been running for a couple of months, Amini and Lindner say the feedback from Bernese citizens and businesses so far has been overwhelmingly positive. “People in the city see the delivery of parcels and goods as a real challenge, so they are very interested in the use case of this autonomous technology,” Lindner confirms.
Amini adds, “The initial observation is that people are very curious – we see people stopping and filming the vehicle and it has been received very positively. We have positive interactions, but I think we will also have phases where it is more difficult in terms of congestion that people might attribute to our autonomous vehicle. We have QR codes on the vehicle so people can contact us to learn more about the project.”
Ultimately, both companies are convinced that autonomous delivery is an inevitable part of the future of logistics, and being at the forefront means they can shape that future.
“The biggest challenge for logistics companies in the middle and last mile is the rise of e-commerce combined with the search for motivated drivers,” warns Amini. “This means that operators need to find innovative approaches to ensure that they can continue to provide a great experience for their consignees. I truly believe that companies that utilize this as an opportunity will have an advantage in this challenging environment.
“The industry will see lots of new concepts and innovations all developing at the same time, and I expect to see more technologies being combined to improve the middle and last mile in the future,” she adds.
Planzer’s Lindner agrees, concluding, “These kinds of partnerships are very important. We don’t have any skills in the field of automation software but we are very experienced in logistics, so by coming together with Loxo, we believe this will be a real success story. Neither company could do this on their own, so we need partnerships like this to move the technology forward and make it work.”
Loxo Alpha
In December 2022, Loxo unveiled its first autonomous delivery vehicle – the Alpha – which was then tested by Migros and Schindler for food delivery in Ebikon, Switzerland, in early 2023.
The Alpha is driverless and powered by an electric motor. During the test it was used to deliver up to 64 shopping bags between the Migros store and the Schindler campus in Ebikon and was the first driverless delivery vehicle to operate on public roads in Switzerland.
According to Loxo, the pilot set a milestone in delivery logistics and demonstrated that sustainable, emission-free mobility is feasible.
Autonomous regulations
In October 2023, the Swiss Federal Council opened a consultation on two new ordinances with which it wants to regulate automated driving. Following the consultation, which closed in February 2024, a new regulatory framework called the AFV is expected in early 2025 that will allow the approval of selected use cases of automated driving in regular operation.
Specifically, the AFV offers the possibility of approving driverless vehicles monitored by an operator on pre-approved routes, vehicles with a takeover request and vehicles with an automation system for parking, all subject to cantonal approval.
It is hoped that the AFV will create a good basis for the scaled implementation of automated driving concepts.
Source: https://www.pwc.ch/en/insights/transport-and-logistics/automated-driving-survey.html
This article was originally published in the December 2024 issue of Parcel and Postal Technology International
