Gasgoo Munich- At the 2026 Teda Forum, Xu Jian from the Ministry of Transport’s Research Institute of Highway said in a keynote speech that traditional mainline logistics faces dual pressures from costs and safety. While large-scale autonomous driving is seen as a solution, he noted that several critical shortcomings remain.
Xu Jian pointed out that in analyzing the cost structure of heavy-duty trucks, with labor costs accounting for roughly 25%, fuel and labor together consume half of total costs. With tolls and vehicle depreciation added, cost reduction and efficiency gains are critical for the survival of logistics firms. Meanwhile, mainline arteries feature steep gradients and continuous curves, while the high inertia and numerous blind spots of heavy trucks further amplify road safety risks.
Image Source: 2026 Teda Forum
Once vehicle-road-cloud integrated autonomous driving reaches scale, it could reduce comprehensive operating costs by more than 20% and cut accident rates by over 90%. The technology is also expected to provide a vital capacity boost for long-haul night operations.
Despite the progress, Xu Jian outlined five critical bottlenecks: First, core technology still faces challenges, particularly the all-weather perception accuracy of smart road networks. Second, information silos persist between vehicles and infrastructure, with construction of supporting facilities lagging. Third, the supporting ecosystem for smart highways has not yet fully taken shape. Fourth, data integration remains ongoing. And fifth, a viable commercial model has yet to be established.
In terms of deployment, China's autonomous freight sector is shifting from enclosed environments to open roads. In mining, over 30 open-pit coal mines in Inner Mongolia and 18 in Xinjiang have deployed unmanned haul trucks, reaching an application scale of thousands of units. At ports, Tianjin Port has deployed 117 autonomous logistics vehicles, logging more than 400,000 kilometers annually and increasing operational efficiency by 20%. On the highway front, over a dozen regions—including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, Shandong, Shanghai, Hubei, and Hunan—have opened more than 400 kilometers of expressway for demonstrations in specific scenarios.
On the policy front, 26 provinces and municipalities have been approved for pilot programs to digitize traditional infrastructure. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Transport is planning a network of zero-carbon freight corridors spanning more than 10,000 kilometers.
Looking toward 2030, the industry aims to achieve large-scale "cabin-to-cabin" autonomous freight on mainlines. The next phase will focus on five key areas: pilot demonstrations, technological breakthroughs, data integration into vehicles, standardization, and multi-party collaboration.
