Autonomous Trucking Obtains Popularity in China
In China, autonomous trucking is coming faster than expected. Chinese driverless truck startup Fabu Technology said June 12 that its driverless trucks already have taken part in open road tests and it plans to offer intercity cargo transportation this year, which is expected to radically reshape the nation’s freight transportation market.
“Our self-driving truck is expected to achieve intercity cargo transportation this year, within-city freight delivery by 2019 and interprovince d elivery by 2020,” said He Xiaofei, founder and CEO of Fabu, who was also former senior deputy president and a top self-driving expert of Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing.
He told China Daily that the company’s self-driving truck is able to run automatically on roads 24/7 with a maximum speed of 70 kilometers per hour.
The move reflects a broader trend that China is gearing up to revamp its road delivery with unmanned trucks. An array of companies including Manbang Group, China’s largest Uber-like freight service provider, is jumping on the bandwagon to develop automation technologies with the aim of improving overall efficiency of the trucking industry.
According to global management consulting firm Bain & Company, China has become the world’s biggest road transportation market and the nation’s road freight has amounted to 6.1 trillion metric ton-kilometers with a fleet of more than 5 million heavy-duty trucks and over 14 million light and medium trucks.
Bullish on the burgeoning market prospects, He left Didi and founded the company in July last year and has raised an undisclosed sum of money from Sinovation Ventures, a leading early-stage venture capital firm.
“Compared with driverless passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles including unmanned trucks follow a fixed route, for example, from one warehouse to another, and run in a relatively simple road condition,” said He, adding that it’s also one of the reasons why commercial vehicles are likely to be commercialized faster than passenger vehicles.
However, he said that developing driverless trucks faces a number of obstacles including stability and maneuverability, which poses higher requirements on technologies.
To solve the problem, Cao Yu, co-founder of Fabu, said that the company will develop independently dedicated chips and will integrate algorithms with chips to improve the reaction speed and power consumption.
“While the reaction speed of common driving and the current autonomous driving is 0.7 seconds and 0.3 to 0.5 seconds, respectively, it will only take 0.05 seconds for our trucks to react, which is even faster than that of F1 racing drivers,” he added. (www.chinatrucks.com)
Views:0
- SINOTRUK Handover the Second Batch of Electric Autonomous Trucks to Tianjin Port 2020-08-20
- Dongfeng 5G + Autonomous Driving Container Trucks Go Into Trial Operation 2020-05-15
- Dongfeng and Inceptio to Roll Off L3 Autonomous Heavy-duty Trucks by Late 2021 2020-05-06
- Suning Completes Testing of China’s First Autonomous Logistic Heavy Truck 2018-05-31
- JMC Debuts Autonomous Driving Delivery Vehicle at WIC 2018-05-21
- Foton Motor Won China's First Autonomous Driving Road Test License for CVs 2018-04-26
- G7 Announce a JV with GLP and NIO Capital to Develop Autonomous Truck 2018-04-04
- World’s First Autonomous Container Truck Starts Operation in Zhuhai Port 2018-01-25
- Autonomous Trucks to Haul Cargo in Arizona 2018-01-23
- Volvo Introduces Self-driving Garbage Truck 2017-05-19
Submit Your Requirements, We Are Always At Your Service.
- BYD Stopped the Production of Fuel Vehicles
- Geely Began Test Runs of Green E-methanol Vehicles in Danmark
- 2022 SANY Global Dealer Summit Was Held Successfully Online
- BYD and Shell Partner on EV Charging across China and Europe
- Daimler Truck Significantly Increase Sales, Revenue and Net Profit in 2021
- Scania Year-end Report January-December 2021
- Hyundai Motor and Iveco Group Sign MOU to Explore Future Collaboration
- GAUSSIN Enters China, the Largest Truck Market in the World
- Over 1,200 Hydrogen-powered Vehicles Deployed for the Beijing Winter Olympics
- Chinese New Year Holiday Closure Notice
- China's Truck Exports Grew by 30% YOY to 63490 Units in January-February
- China's New Energy Heavy Trucks Grew Despite an Overall Slump
- Heavy-duty Truck sales in China Fell by 54% to 54,000 units in February
- SINOTRUK Achieves Sales of 27,725 Vehicles in January, 2022
- China’s Domestic Tractor Sales Exceed 40,000 Units in January
- 2021 JAC International Pickup Export Performance
- JAC Achieved a Great Result in 2021
- China's Truck Export in 2021 Reached a 10-year Peak
- Heavy-duty Truck Sales in China Fall 57 Percent on Year in January
- China Recorded Sales of 645000 Tractors in 2021