PonyTron smart trucks set to grace expressways

Commercialization of autonomous trucks in China saw major progress, as self-driving startup Pony.ai announced its truck brand－PonyTron－has successfully completed the country's first test of high-level autonomous trucks on open expressways.

Having been committed to promoting the research and development and application of autonomous driving technologies for commercial vehicles since it was launched in March, Pony.ai managed to complete the open-expressway tests with its self-driving trucks on the Beijing-Taipei Expressway over the weekend.

So far, its self-driving trucks have hauled about 16,400 metric tons of freight, with a commercial operating mileage of 50,000 kilometers.

The vehicles under normalized testing are autonomous driving trucks developed on the FAW Jiefang J7 vehicle platform, which is mainly used for logistics and is able to achieve L4 autonomous driving on busy expressways.

L4 automation means the vehicle can drive by itself under most circumstances without a human backup driver.

In July, PonyTron was among the first batch of companies greenlighted in Beijing to test self-driving trucks on expressways.

The company had obtained a permit to test its autonomous trucks on public roads in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in December 2020. It was also granted a freight road transport business permit from local authorities in Nansha district of Guangzhou in April.

Li Hengyu, head of Pony.ai's truck division, said there is huge development potential for autonomous driving in the logistics segment. The core value of self-driving trucks is to liberate manpower when facing a huge driver shortage in the sector.

"We have been exploring how to empower and change the logistics industry with autonomous driving technologies," Li said.

Established in 2016, Pony.ai had attracted investments of over $1.1 billion by the end of February, pushing its valuation to more than $5.3 billion.

Truck logistics will become a key application scenario for Pony.ai's autonomous trucks, the company said. It aims to test self-driving trucks on more expressways to provide safer and more effective solutions to fill the labor gap and improve logistics efficiency.

According to a report by Beijing-based think tank EqualOcean, the number of heavy-duty trucks in China's logistics system is expected to reach 6.27 million in 2030, with revenue from autonomous trucks hitting 853.9 billion yuan ($134.6 billion) by then.

"Compared with self-driving passenger-carrying robotaxis, the road condition for autonomous trucks is simpler, as there are no traffic lights and passengers on expressways," said Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automobile Industry Innovation Research Center, which is part of the North China University of Technology in Beijing.

Zhang said autonomous trucks could be equipped with more advanced sensors and radars, and the large-scale application of self-driving trucks in logistics will reduce delivery costs, save expenses on manpower, enhance operational efficiency and make freight transportation safer.

Jiang Zheng, an expert at the research and development center affiliated to Guangzhou Automobile Group, said Chinese authorities are quickening the commercialization of autonomous driving technology, and formulating guidelines to allow self-driving companies to test their vehicles in a wide range of scenarios.