International automated driving enterprise DeepRoute.ai on Saturday reached a new cooperation agreement with Deppon Express. Under the arrangement, DeepRoute.ai’s automated driving trucks will provide year-long regular freight transit services for Deppon Express, ensuring safe and efficient delivery of express shipments. This is the first commercialization project for L4 self-driving light trucks to be put into practice in China.
At 8:00 pm on the same day, DeepRoute.ai’s self-driving light truck started duty. It worked overnight for more than 10 hours, driving on autopilot until 6:00 am the next day, serving one logistics warehouse and three stores of Deppon Express in Futian District and Longhua District of Shenzhen. The vehicle drove through many congested sections such as Beihuan Avenue and Xiangmi Lake Road, with a 100% time efficiency achievement rate.
The head of Shenzhen regional business for Deppon Express said: “Compared with human drivers, self-driving light trucks can work ‘without mood’ during the busy ‘618’ shopping festival for logistics. And they even don’t feel ‘tired’ and ‘sleepy’, which improves the efficiency of urban logistics transportation and reduce operating costs. In case of an epidemic outbreak, the self-driving light truck is also able to carry out ‘unmanned freight’, which can effectively reduce the risk of cross-infection in distribution and ensure the transportation of goods.”
Automated light trucks can handle complex scenarios such as night driving and tunnel traffic on city roads with ease, and they have a robust driving ability even in thunderstorms, ensuring the operational efficiency of crosstown logistics.
Automated driving light trucks are equipped with sensors such as LIDAR, cameras, millimeter wave radar, and combined navigation. Leveraging the L4 autonomous driving system, the automated light truck can quickly plan and decide the optimal driving path.
Zhou Guang, the CEO of DeepRoute.ai, said: “Same-city freight has a market of more than $250 billion. As the freight is mainly at night, with fewer people and vehicles at night and simpler road conditions, we believe that self-driving same-city freight will be commercialized earlier than Robotaxi. Currently, DeepRoute.ai’s automated driving light trucks and automated driving passenger cars use the same automated driving system and have higher R&D efficiency.”
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DeepRoute.ai focuses on two business categories: travel and crosstown freight. In April 2022, its fleet of L4 autonomous driving front-end solutions entered Shenzhen. DeepRoute.ai has R&D centers in Shenzhen and Beijing, and has cooperated with well-known companies such as Dongfeng Motor and Caocao Mobility in many places in China on automated driving, and has conducted a large number of road testing and trial operations.
