HEFEI, China — On a long stretch of highway between Beijing and Tianjin, a convoy of lorries thunders forward at speed. Their wheels spin, engines hum but no hands are on the wheel.
These trucks are driving themselves.
Aboard one of them sits Huo Kangtian, a 32-year-old safety driver. His hands hover near the wheel, but he isn’t steering. The lorry is. “At first, I was scared,” he admits. “But after watching how it works, how it reacts, I trust it more now. It’s actually quite impressive.”
For now, Chinese law still requires a human in the cabin. But the technology no longer needs one.
As part of a pilot programme led by Pony.ai, these autonomous trucks are already transporting freight along designated routes. The company says this is just the beginning.
“In the future, we’ll run them without drivers,” says Li Hengyu, a vice president at Pony.ai. “It’ll mean lower labour costs and better performance under tough conditions, like long hauls and overnight runs.”
A Drive Toward Efficiency
From a business angle, the motivation is simple: money.
“Reducing driver costs to near zero that’s the goal,” says Professor Yang Ruigang of Shanghai Jiaotong University, who has worked on self-driving tech both in China and the U.S.
With labour shortages, rising wages, and surging delivery demand, especially from e-commerce, driverless vehicles offer a tempting solution for transport companies.
But there’s a catch. And it’s a big one.
Tragedy and Trust
In recent years, China has seen a string of fatal crashes involving autonomous vehicles, including an accident where three university students died while in autopilot mode.
That incident has made the public wary, even if the technology has improved.
“Public trust is going to be absolutely critical,” says Chim Lee, a China analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit. “People don’t care if the vehicle is in a port or on a freeway. If something goes wrong, especially with a big truck, there’s no room for error.”
And that, Professor Yang adds, is where human psychology matters. “We can forgive a driver’s mistake,” he says. “But we don’t tolerate machines doing the same.”
The Experiment in Hefei
While highways are still under trial, city streets in Hefei a bustling metropolis in eastern China are already seeing dozens of autonomous delivery vans in action.
This isn’t science fiction. It’s standard operating procedure.
In the suburbs, vans from Rino.ai cruise past scooters and cyclists, calmly stopping at lights, signalling, and changing lanes. Their job is simple: get packages from big courier hubs to neighbourhood drop-off points, where scooter riders take over.
“We let the humans handle the last leg,” says Gary Huang, Rino’s president. “But the vans take care of the repetitive, longer trips. It speeds everything up.”
So far, the model is working. Rino has over 500 vehicles with road access across 50 Chinese cities. It’s even set to launch a commercial partnership in Australia later this year, supplying driverless delivery vehicles to a supermarket chain.
Costs, Cities, and Scaling Up
In Hefei, it’s not just Rino. Several autonomous delivery companies now operate on public roads, thanks to a push by local authorities.
According to Rino’s regional director Zhang Qichen, three electric delivery vans can now do the work of one human driver and stay on the road for days without a charge.
The implications are huge.
“It’s fast. It’s cheap. And it’s efficient,” she says. “I wouldn’t be surprised if long-haul trucks are doing this on their own within five years.”
Professor Yang agrees cautiously. “Fully driverless trucks on open highways? Still five years away, maybe more. But for low-speed areas, like depots or last-mile deliveries, they’re already here.”
Still Miles to Go
Even the most advanced driverless lorries still rely on retrofitted old models. Cameras need upgrades to see farther. Roads may require embedded sensors to help guide vehicles. Extreme weather, traffic chaos, and mechanical failures remain difficult to manage.
And the cost of the technology itself isn’t cheap.
“There’s no such thing as autopilot magic,” says Professor Yang. “You need planning, investment, and regulation not just good software.”
And then there’s public opinion. “It’s not only about safety,” says Chim Lee. “People need to believe this will improve their lives. Save them money. Make things better not worse.”
The Road Ahead
For now, safety drivers like Huo remain a key part of the system. He doesn’t mind the shift. “It helps with fatigue. Gives me a bit of a break. And honestly, it makes the job more interesting,” he says with a shrug.
Whether men like him will still be needed in five or ten years is a different question one policymakers, engineers, and the public must all help answer.
Until then, China’s driverless lorries will keep rolling forward. Carefully. Quietly. And still under watchful eyes.
