Velodyne Lidar Inc. and Beijing Trunk Technology Co. Ltd are collaborating to develop autonomous heavy trucks for China’s logistics market.

The companies will cooperate on lidar-enabled products to accelerate the commercialization of driverless trucks in China. These lidar solutions will strengthen object awareness and detection capabilities of unmanned heavy trucks as well as increase safety regulations.

Beijing Trunk is developing SAE Level 4 driverless trucks based on its driverless hardware and software systems. Lidar will be used as the core sensor hardware in these trucks. The Chinese automotive vendor said it chose Velodyne due to its sensor quality, performance and mass production capacity.

“Autonomous trucks can supplement labor gaps, save fuel costs and enhance logistics, as well as improve transportation safety and help reduce truck accident rates,” said Dr. Zhang TianLei, CEO of Beijing Trunk Technology. “Velodyne sensors, combined with our multi-sensor fusion algorithms, enable trucks to achieve high-precision, long-range real-time sensing to support autonomous driving on complex road environments.”

Self-driving trucks are seen as a path toward solving ongoing issues with the logistics industry such as an aging workforce of drivers, new government regulations for electric vehicles, growing accident rates and an increase in e-commerce, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beijing Trunk has deployed Velodyne lidar sensors on dozens of driverless trucks that have been operating autonomously at ports in China. The trucks have also been road tested on Chinese roadways and in 2018 completed the country’s first high-speed test of a driverless truck. In 2019, the company won key Chinese research and development program projects, receiving right-of-way support.