Chinese logistics companies go autonomous route

Chinese logistics companies China Post and Deppon Express are due to have the first Chinese commercial self-driving logistics service on the road in April. The delivery trucks carrying parcels will operate on autonomous driving technologies developed by FABU Technology. China Post, the stateowned enterprise that operates the official postal service of mainland China, has over 82 000 post offices and branches and a fleet of more than 39 000 vehicles. Logistics company Deppon Express has 10 000 retail offices in China, and operations  in Korea, Japan, Thailand, Singapore,
Malaysia and Vietnam. Trials of Level 4 autonomous trucks started in November 2018, in China’s heavily populated Zhejiang Province. In Level 4 autonomous driving, the car handles the majority of driving situations independently although a human driver can still take control when needed. During the testing, self-driving trucks operating on FABU autonomous driving technology averaged 40-mile daily round trips along three different routes, with one delivery route passing through 50 intersections, 26 of which were controlled by traffic lights. The trucks drove
both in daylight and at night, and on highways, through tunnels and along residential streets filled with pedestrians, schools and flea markets. Because the self-driving tests were conducted in winter, these Level 4 trucks also had to drive their routes during challenging weather conditions such as rainstorms, snow and fog. During the test period autonomous trucks operated by FABU technology successfully drove over 3 500 km  and delivered over  60 000 parcels during China’s peak shopping season, which includes Singles’ Day, Christmas and Chinese New Year, according to the company.