Hendrik Kramer
Hendrik Kramer is the co-founder, mastermind and CEO of Fernride. Founded in 2019, the company is dedicated to the development of remote-controlled, driverless electric trucks and aims to help autonomous driving achieve a breakthrough. Kramer is pursuing the vision of holistic, driverless "Transportation-as-a-Service". Truck drivers should turn into office jobs, truckers into operators. The start-up started with a platform for the teleoperation of commercial vehicles on closed yard and factory premises, where trucks can be moved without a driver.
| Sector | Commercial vehicle industry, software |
| Country | Germany |
| Current position | Co-founder and CEO Fernride |
Hendrik Kramer completed his bachelor's degree in engineering at the University of Bremen and a master's degree in management and technology at the Technical University of Munich, where he specialized in entrepreneurship and autonomous driving. Scholarships also enabled him to study at the DTU in Copenhagen and Stanford University in California. During his time in Munich, Kramer was a scholarship holder of UnternehmerTUM's Manage&More program.
He founded Fernride in Munich in 2019 together with Dr. Maximilian Fisser and Jean-Michael Georg. In 2021, they raised 10 million euros in venture capital. In January 2020, the company won the de:hub Award for Germany's most promising start-up across all categories and industries, and many other awards and accolades followed.
Kramer and his co-founders wanted to focus on the logistics industry right from the start and implement the vision of a holistic, driverless "Transportation-as-a-Service". The aim is to gradually develop Fernride in the direction of autonomous driving over the coming years and take it public.
The company is pursuing the technological approach of "Human-Assisted Autonomy", which enables the remote takeover of autonomous, electric trucks. This ensures the integration and reliable operation of autonomous trucks for logistics companies. Market experts are convinced that Fernride will play a decisive role in the development of autonomous, scalable driving technologies.
Hendrik Kramer is the driving force behind Fernride. He is convinced that automation is the only way to revolutionize the logistics industry and make a real contribution to solving the global driver shortage as well as the energy transition. His long-term vision is for trucks to be able to drive autonomously on public roads and highways.
As this will take decades and Kramer wanted to make money quickly, he initially launched scalable automation solutions for trucks in yard and port logistics. Using a platform for the teleoperation of commercial vehicles, trucks can be moved across the site without a driver, just like in a console game. A so-called teleoperator monitors several autonomously driving trucks simultaneously from a screen workstation modeled on a vehicle cockpit and intervenes if necessary. Cameras and sensors on the vehicles scan the surroundings. The corresponding data is streamed via the mobile network and visualized on screens as a 3D model.
The technology is based on more than ten years of scientific research, but for legal reasons it can initially only be used in closed, demarcated areas such as logistics centers, factory premises and port areas, for example to transport containers, move swap bodies or transport goods in warehouses. It has also proven its suitability in practice with customers such as Volkswagen, HHLA and DB Schenker. Trucks were successfully controlled from the Munich teleoperation center. The company also works with the Krone vehicle plant and Dutch vehicle manufacturer Terberg, which produces special tractor units and forklift trucks for the logistics sector.
Although teleoperation sounds like simple remote control at first glance, the tech company collects huge amounts of data in this first phase. This data is used by adaptive software and artificial intelligence to further develop operations and manage increasingly complex processes.
The start-up now employs over 120 people and its customer companies operate more than 1,000 yard trucks in Europe alone. Fernride is to be floated on the stock market in the coming years.
Vita
born 1995
2011 – today: Founder, Kramer-Dressage.com
2014 – 2017: Tutor, UniversityBremen
2018: Co-Founder, AQUAIO
2018: Student Consultant, BNP Paribas
2019: Cohort Member, XPRENEURS Incubator for High-Tech Startups
2019 – today: Co-Founder & CEO, FERNRIDE
