Sany Heavy Industry: No human intervention throughout the process! Road test of the world's first 5G electric intelligent heavy-duty truck

Recently, the world's first 5G electric intelligent heavy-duty truck, jointly developed by Sany, Pony.ai and others, completed its first 31-kilometer autonomous driving road test, which was particularly exciting.

There was no human intervention throughout the entire process

This road test started from the west gate of the Intelligent Connected Heavy Truck Industrial Park. The 5G electric intelligent heavy truck first went on the test section of Changsha Ring Expressway, and then returned to the intelligent battery swap station in the factory area along the main road test section. The entire journey was 31 kilometers long, passing through 8 intersections, and took 55 minutes.

The test sections include urban road conditions, expressway road conditions, and night road conditions. They also need to deal with 13 typical scenarios such as traffic lights, entering and exiting ramps, entering and exiting toll stations, and vehicle lane changes, to ensure that the application environment meets all elements.

The road test was fully automated by the "Virtual Driver" system jointly developed by Sany and Pony.ai, with an unmanned driving level reaching L4, achieving full avoidance of human intervention throughout the process.

Equipped with millimeter-wave radar, high-definition cameras, multiple sensors and satellite positioning systems, this 40-ton heavy-duty truck is fully armed. Relying on 5G and C-V2X technologies, it can send and receive data and instructions in real time to adjust the steering wheel, accelerator and other controls at any time.

On the expressway, the truck was moving steadily at a speed of 80 miles per hour. The vehicle control was well-paced and smooth without any delay. On urban roads, when encountering pedestrians, other vehicles, etc., it will slow down by itself to give way and continue moving forward after confirming safety.

Wu, the safety officer on board, said that after the trip, he didn't do anything, "except for making a cup of tea."

Chen Aijun, the project manager of Sany Heavy Truck Intelligent Institute, is the project leader. As the vehicle successfully passed all scenario tests and safely returned to the factory area, he couldn't hide his excitement either: "This road test has achieved an organic combination of transportation elements such as' people, vehicles, roads, and clouds'. This is the first case of '5G+ autonomous driving + electrification' application in the global industry."

Driving license test

As early as the beginning of this year, when Wu Guiying, a member of the Standing Committee of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Secretary of the Changsha Municipal Committee, led a team to investigate the Sany Intelligent Connected Heavy Truck Industrial Park, this 5G intelligent electric heavy truck made its debut as a welcoming vehicle, guiding the observation team's fleet into the factory area and attracting attention from all sides.

Chen Aijun introduced that this vehicle was initiated in April last year. As of the time of this road test, it has completed over 20,000 kilometers of autonomous driving tests and has applied for multiple national inventions including adaptive cruise control and speed control.

Compared with traditional trucks, 5G heavy-duty trucks that apply a large number of autonomous driving technologies have higher transportation efficiency, significantly reduce the labor cost of vehicle use, and can also avoid traffic accidents caused by fatigue driving and overloading.

In terms of energy storage, this model is compatible with almost all manufacturers' DC charging piles, supports battery swapping and fast charging, and has a range of up to 200 kilometers, with obvious market advantages.

Chen Aijun said that currently, this vehicle has passed the national autonomous driving license qualification test. In the future, it will launch commercial trial operations of autonomous driving in formation form and create the first national smart logistics demonstration route from "Changsha to Ningxiang".

In addition, while steadily promoting the mass production of vehicle models, we are accelerating the research and application of cross-scenario L4 unmanned driving technology to help increase the market share of "three and one heavy trucks" and lead the development of the intelligent connected vehicle industry in Hunan Province.