Xu Jian of the Research Institute of Highway, MOT, Presents Progress on Freight Autonomous Driving Implementation at 2026 TEDA Auto Forum

On September 19, at the 2026 TEDA Automotive Forum, Xu Jian from the Highway Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport delivered a keynote speech. Xu Jian explained that in the cost structure of long-haul heavy-duty trucks, labor costs account for approximately 25%, and combined with fuel costs, they make up half of total operating expenses. Once vehicle-road-cloud integrated autonomous driving is deployed at scale, it could reduce comprehensive operating costs by over 20% and cut accident rates by more than 90%. Xu Jian outlined five current shortcomings: insufficient all-weather perception accuracy of intelligent road networks; information silos between vehicles and infrastructure, with relatively lagging development of supporting facilities for autonomous driving; an incomplete supporting ecosystem for smart highways; ongoing challenges in data integration; and an unproven commercial closed loop. Regarding implementation progress: - In mining, over 30 open-pit coal mines in Inner Mongolia and 18 in Xinjiang have already deployed autonomous haul trucks, achieving a deployment scale of thousands of units. - In ports, Tianjin Port has put 117 autonomous logistics vehicles into operation, logging over 400,000 kilometers annually and improving operational efficiency by 20%. - On expressways, more than 400 kilometers of highway segments across over ten provinces and municipalities—including Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Shandong, Shanghai, Hubei, and Hunan—have been opened for pilot demonstrations in specific scenarios. On the policy front, 26 provinces and municipalities nationwide have been approved as pilots for digital transformation of traditional infrastructure. The Ministry of Transport is currently planning to develop over 10,000 kilometers of zero-carbon freight corridors. Looking ahead to 2030, the industry aims to achieve large-scale autonomous freight transport for end-to-end (depot-to-depot) long-haul operations. The next steps will focus on five areas: pilot demonstrations, technological breakthroughs, onboard data utilization, standardization systems, and multi-party collaboration.