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Over the past three years, FERNRIDE has proudly contributed to one of Europe’s most groundbreaking mobility projects: ATLAS-L4. This large-scale, government-backed initiative brought autonomous trucks into real-world highway traffic for the first time in Germany, marking a major step toward solving some of the biggest challenges facing the logistics industry today. With the final presentation of the project’s results in May 2025, we are ready to review the results and look ahead to what’s next.
Europe is facing a growing shortage of truck drivers. With almost 100,000 vacancies in Germany alone, this crisis threatens the stability and efficiency of the supply chain. ATLAS-L4 set out to tackle this challenge head-on by advancing driverless technology for hub-to-hub freight transport on highways, where automation can have an immediate and measurable impact.
The project launched in 2022 with the ambitious goal of developing a Level-4 autonomous truck capable of operating safely and reliably on public roads. Backed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and a €59.1 million budget, the project created a working prototype that complies with Germany’s 2021 autonomous driving law, pushing Europe to the forefront of mobility innovation.
ATLAS-L4 embodied best practices from industry leaders and top research and educational institutions collaborating to achieve outstanding results. ATLAS-L4 brought together twelve partners, each bringing specialized expertise: MAN Truck & Bus (project lead), Knorr-Bremse, LEONI, Bosch Automotive Steering, FERNRIDE, BTC Embedded Systems, Fraunhofer AISEC, TU Munich, TU Braunschweig, TÜV SÜD, Autobahn GmbH, WIVW GmbH. Together, around 150 engineers laid the foundation for future industrial applications of autonomous freight transport.
FERNRIDE played a key role by contributing human-assisted autonomy expertise and integrating its unique teleoperation technology into the ATLAS-L4 system. This concept demonstrated how autonomous trucks can remain under remote human oversight to handle edge cases or execute planned maneuvers when needed. FERNRIDE’s solution allows a remote operator to intervene when necessary, making it possible to scale automation without compromising safety or reliability.
ATLAS-L4 also strongly aligns with FERNRIDE’s long-term vision: to transform logistics with autonomous trucking, starting in logistics yards and scaling to the open road. With the solution already active in container terminals today, FERNRIDE lays a foundation for scaling the technology. As a next step, together with our customers and partners, we will bring this proven technology into more complex, open-road hub-to-hub scenarios.
The participation in the ATLAS-L4 project has strengthened our connections with the industry partners and paved the way for future collaboration to transform the logistics industry. Industry transformation cannot happen in isolation. It takes deep collaboration across manufacturers, tech providers, infrastructure experts, research institutions, and regulators. Projects like ATLAS-L4 prove that when these forces unite, truly groundbreaking progress is possible.
Hendrik Kramer, CEO and co-founder of FERNRIDE, comments on the project's success: "ATLAS-L4 shows what’s possible when Europe commits to technological sovereignty and cross-industry collaboration. Bringing autonomous driving to the open road is more than a milestone! It’s a signal that we’re ready to lead. Projects like this prove that transformation needs strong partners, a shared vision, and the courage to make it real."
"Being part of ATLAS-L4 has been an incredible journey. I want to thank all our project partners for the exceptional collaboration. Working across company boundaries created an environment of mutual learning and innovation. This was truly a shared success story," concludes Ekaterina Grigoreva, Program Manager at FERNRIDE, and the Project Manager for the ATLAS-L4.
ATLAS-L4 was an important first step, but it’s just the beginning. As we look toward the future, FERNRIDE is committed to scaling safe, efficient, and reliable autonomous trucking to solve the pressing logistics and supply chain challenges.
We thank all project partners and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action for enabling this pioneering work. Together, we’re building the foundation for the next generation of logistics: one that is safer, smarter, and more resilient.
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