A wave of autonomous driving is sweeping China's auto industry, and commercial vehicles are being included.

SAIC Group, China's largest automaker, announced Thursday that it has officially established a commercial vehicle smart driving company, Shanghai Youdao Zhitu Technology, and plans to locate it in the new Lingang zone of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone.

Youdao will use SAIC's technology and experience in the "5G+L4" smart heavy truck project at Yangshan Port to focus on L4 and L3 autonomous driving products for specific scenarios such as ports, factories and trunk logistics scenarios, SAIC said.

Youdao is committed to becoming "the innovation leader in full-scene autonomous driving solutions and network freight platform in the global commercial vehicle sector," according to an announcement from SAIC.

SAIC smart heavy truck has already obtained 29 open road test licenses and demonstration operation licenses, and has accumulated more than 1.6 million kilometers of testing so far, SAIC said.

(Photo source: SAIC)

In early 2019, SAIC Group, Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG) and China Mobile collaborated on the Shanghai Yangshan Port smart heavy truck project to achieve demonstration operation.

In July last year, SAIC's in-house developed "5G+L4" intelligent heavy-duty truck started its quasi-commercial operation in Shanghai Yangshan Port.

Youdao will release a new L3 intelligent heavy-duty truck product in the coming year for commercial operation on limited routes.

The division plans to also cover campus logistics and end-of-pipe logistics by 2023, forming a full-scope commercial vehicle Door to Door self-driving network, SAIC said.

EqualOcean estimates that by 2030, China will have 6.27 million heavy-duty trucks for trunk logistics, and the potential economic benefits of self-driving trunk logistics will reach RMB 140.45 billion ($216.6 billion).

SAIC reports revenue of $55 billion in H1, up 30% year-over-year