Unmanned freight transportation is favored by giants and may become the first scenario for autonomous driving to be implemented

The technical maturity and safety of driverless vehicles have attracted widespread attention and discussion. With relatively simple application scenarios, broad market space and strong deployment of global giants, driverless freight is expected to become the earliest driverless application to be commercialized.

Currently, giants in various fields such as automobiles, the Internet, and logistics are accelerating their layout on driverless trucks, competing to launch related products and concept cars, and launching a series of tests.

Last September, Daimler, a well-known commercial vehicle manufacturer, announced that it had obtained permission from the Oregon Department of Transportation to conduct the test on public roads following successful trials at a proving ground in Madras, Oregon.

Tesla released the electric semi-trailer truck semi in November last year.

At the 2018 CES Consumer Electronics Show, Toyota released the new e-Palette Concept, which can be used in multiple scenarios such as ride-sharing, retail, and cargo delivery.

In March of this year, Uber announced that its fleet of self-driving trucks has begun transporting goods on highways in Arizona. Uber's self-driving truck transportation service can be combined with manual truck services.

In June this year, Volvo Trucks and FedEx cooperated to start road testing of "driverless convoy" technology on highways in North Carolina, USA.

Chinese companies are also actively developing unmanned freight transportation.

In April this year, the driverless truck fleet of TuSimple, a Chinese driverless freight truck technology company, started trial operation in Caofeidian Port Area in Hebei Province, achieving continuous non-intervention operation in all working conditions and single shifts.

In May this year, Suning conducted actual testing of the "Xinglong No. 1" heavy-duty unmanned truck.

On the eve of the 2018 "618" event, JD.com publicly released the details of its L4-level unmanned heavy-duty truck for the first time. JD.com's unmanned heavy-duty truck has completed 2,400 hours of intelligent driving super testing and is scheduled to be put on the road in China in 2020.

Earlier this month, Baidu and Neolix Company jointly released the "Neolithic AX1". This L4-level mass-produced unmanned logistics vehicle will be first put into trial operation in Changzhou, Jiangsu and Xiong'an, Hebei.

The scenario of unmanned freight is simpler than that of unmanned passenger cars on public roads. Freight is mainly trunk logistics, that is, driving on closed highways. The road conditions on highways are not as complicated as ordinary roads, and there are relatively fewer uncontrollable factors such as pedestrians.

In addition to trunk lines, another important scenario for freight transportation is the internal roads of ports and docks, which is more conducive to the development of unmanned driving.

Human factors are also driving the development of unmanned freight. Currently, truck driving has become an undesirable profession due to many factors such as the harsh working environment, high labor intensity, high driving qualification requirements, and high safety risks.

There is a shortage of human resources for long-distance truck drivers and port transport truck drivers. Therefore, major companies and related institutions have to start considering or developing unmanned freight.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.