The Ordos Group received 100 new energy L4 autonomous trucks, named Shaanxi Delong – Kargo Navigator, on Aug 20 in Otog Banner of Ordos city, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, marking the completion of the region's largest order of autonomous trucks.

At the same time, Kargobot.ai Co (Kargobot) – a leading autonomous driving company – has deepened its cooperation with Shaanxi Heavy Duty Auto and CIMC Vehicles by signing an agreement for 1,000 smart-networked convoy trucks. This set a new record for the largest order in the industry.

L4 autonomous driving refers to high-level automation in which vehicles can fully complete driving tasks and monitor the driving environment in specific conditions without human intervention.

The handover ceremony of the trucks is held in Ordos. [Photo/WeChat account of Nuan News]

The handed-over trucks. [Photo/WeChat account of Nuan News]

Wei Junqing, CEO of Kargobot, said that the delivered trucks are the world's first fully autonomous, driver-redundant convoy vehicles.

The vehicles are equipped with five LiDARs, six millimeter-wave radars, and 13 cameras. They feature the world's highest computing power platform and a million-kilometer fault-free positioning system. It can drive autonomously in complex mining environments and achieve unmanned convoy goals.

The L4 autonomous driving heavy trucks are parked outside a Kargobot office. [Photo/WeChat account of Nuan News]

Ordos has China's largest coal reserves and production, and Otog Banner has Inner Mongolia's first trillion-yuan-level industrial park, leading to a high demand for heavy truck transportation. Additionally, the city's tens of thousands of trucks currently pose challenges to safety and overall scheduling, providing excellent operational scenarios for autonomous driving.

As a result, Ordos introduced Kargobot, making it the first to conduct autonomous convoy transportation testing and operations in Otog Banner.

Yu Yang, Kargobot's engineering manager, stated that convoy autonomous driving technology is quicker to deploy than single-vehicle autonomous driving technology. This is because it relies on the leading vehicle to navigate and avoid long-tail scenarios, making driving safer.

The convoy equipped with Kargobot Navigator can achieve a one-to-many autonomous truck convoy mode. Only the lead vehicle requires a safety officer, while the convoy vehicles drive unmanned.

This time, the handover of these autonomous trucks will actively promote Ordos' safety production concept of "unmanned means safe" and the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces.

Wei Junqing stated that autonomous driving and smart networking represent advanced productivity and new quality productive forces. He hopes to revolutionize the logistics industry with AI technology since economic development requires reducing logistics costs, and autonomous driving is an important development in that direction.