Long-Haul Robotruck Market in China

Long-haul trucking was once a niche space in autonomous driving. That changed in 2020 with robotaxi startups expanding to cover trucks. In China, Pony.ai is an example, whose recent valuation has reached over $5 billion after a new round of financing.

Without getting into the discussions on how much technology is actually transferrable from carrying people to carrying goods, robotruck indeed seems closer to commercialization compared to robotaxi, especially long-haul trucks that are mainly commuting a fixed route on highways.

Generally speaking, the commercialization of robotruck involves three roles — autonomous driving solution provider, OEM, and logistics service provider. Thus, we will dive into the market through leading companies in each category.

L3/L4 Solution Providers

This category is usually startups dedicated to autonomous driving technologies on trucks, offering software and hardware combined solutions. In China, there are TuSimple, Plus.ai, Inceptio and Trunk.

Plus.ai partners with FAW Jiefang, the oldest truck OEM in China, with joint venture company established last year. In September 2020, the first batch of co-developed J7, a heavy-duty truck with L3 autonomous driving features, rolled off the production line and handed over to JD logistics. Meantime, the freight-matching platform Full Truck Alliance, which is also a strategic investor of Plus.ai, has started trial operation with J7 trucks.

Inceptio is co-developing L3 heavy-duty trucks with Dongfeng and Sinotruk (China National Heavy Duty Truck Group). Eventually, the semi-autonomous trucks will be incorporated into the logistics-as-a-service platform that Inceptio is building. The company has raised two rounds of financing this year adding a total of $220 million to support the development plans.

Trunk started out with L4 truck in port scenario while its ambition covers the entire journey of smart logistics. With multiple port projects in operation, Trunk began to test truck platooning on highways. In August 2020, it formed a joint venture with Fuyou Truck, a logistics company on inter-city transportation, to implement autonomous driving technology in logistics services.

As for TuSimple, the company currently focuses on the US market with China on the radar.

L1/L2 (ADAS) Providers

With policies mandating active safety features on commercial vehicles, a number of companies focusing on L1 and L2 ADAS solutions (either pre-equipped or after-market) have achieved rapid growth. Names like Minieye, Maxieye, JIMU and HiRain often come up speaking of the trucks segment.

Minieye has aimed for the pre-equipped market in the last two years and won projects with truck OEMs such as Dongfeng, Sinotruk, and Shaanxi Auto. To support the scaled delivery and R&D on L3 solutions, the company just completed C round financing of RMB 270 million.

Maxieye recently estimated their ADAS delivery on commercial vehicles to be between 100,000 and 200,000 units this year. Positioned as Tier 1.5, Maxieye is committed to empower OEMs, Tier 1s or Mobility-as-a-service platforms with customizable solutions. SORL (Ruili Group), an auto parts supplier, strategically invested in the company in March this year.

JIMU Intelligent started early in the field. So far, it has delivered ADAS products for multiple commercial vehicle brands in scale. XCMG and 31truck are the major customers from the truck segment. In August, a new production line in Wuhan went into operation with capacity estimated at 200,000 units a year.

HiRain is more of a traditional Tier 1 in the auto industry, and started R&D on intelligent driving solutions since 2012. It was one of the earliest to offer complete ADAS products among local suppliers. HiRain is a shareholder in the joint venture of Plus.ai and FAW Jiefang.

OEMs

Long haul trucking has been the main form of road transportation in China. Applying intelligent driving technologies to trucks not only reduces labor cost and fuel consumption, but also improves safety, offering immediate commercial value.

OEMs like Dongfeng, FAW Jiefang, Shaanxi Auto and Foton invested in R&D over the years and have introduced models targeting long haul logistics with highway pilot or vehicle platooning features.

In fact, almost all truck OEMs have achieved certain level of automation by now. Besides long haul trucking, there are popular directions like port and road sanitation that the other OEMs started with. Collaborating with tech startups is also a trend.

Logistics Services

JD, as one of the largest online retailer in China, is well recognized for its self-built logistics system and highly efficient delivery service to customers. Although most e-commerce companies are working towards last mile robodelivery (so is JD), JD has made extra efforts in long haul trucking.

In 2016, JD established an R&D center in Silicon Valley dedicated to innovative technologies, including L4 trucks. In 2018, JD presented the concept truck at the “618 JD CUBE” conference and announced the plan to build autonomous truck based logistics network to takeover highway transportation tasks in major cities and regional centers.

A source revealed that JD has cut the L4 truck project as of March 2019. Given JD purchased the first batch of J7 trucks co-developed by Plus.ai and FAW Jiefang earlier this year, the company is still very committed to automated logistics.

From another perspective, it reiterates the ideal model of robotruck commercialization, where startups offer autonomous driving solutions, OEMs offer hardware platform and production lines, and logistics companies adopt and feedback, all together pushing disruptive technologies forward.

Appendix:

Major Chinese Companies Involved in Long-Haul Robotruck (11/2020)