The global rollout of self-driving cars has been slowed by regulatory and liability concerns in many regions, but the pace of adoption in China has now jumped to a point where trucks equipped with assisted driving systems collectively log over one million kilometers every day, according to a report from IDTechEx.
One reason for that trend is that the commercial freight sector presents a clearer path to monetization than passenger cars, since its routes are fixed, operational costs are measurable, and efficiency gains are directly linked to profitability.
To be sure, similar forces are driving an expansion of autonomous trucking in the U.S. and Europe, where companies such as Aurora, Plus, and TuSimple are advancing pilot programs and OEM integration, IDTechEx said.
But the industry is growing faster in China, according to a report from IDTechEx analyst Shihao Fu, following a visit to Inceptio Technology, a Chinese autonomous trucking company. Here’s why: Around the world, autonomous trucking faces two persistent hurdles: the long commercialization timeline of Level 4 fully driverless systems and the slow adaptation of regulatory frameworks to real-world operations. In contrast, China’s logistics ecosystem, characterized by high freight density and flexible policy support, has enabled a distinctive pathway: “assist first, automate later.”
In the example described by the report, since Inceptio launched its commercialization pilots in 2021, the company has scaled its proprietary Xuanyuan autonomous driving system through mass-production programs with major OEMs such as Dongfeng, Sinotruk, and Foton. The system now represents roughly 50% of production volume across its partner models, with cumulative autonomous mileage exceeding 300 million kilometers. By focusing on Level 2+ assistance before reaching full Level 4 autonomy, Inceptio has lowered barriers to large-scale deployment while continuously collecting real-world data for algorithm refinement and long-term autonomy development.
That approach is a good fit for China’s long-haul freight network, where delivery time and labor cost define profitability. Traditionally, routes under 1,000 kilometers rely on two alternating drivers, while longer routes depend on “relay” or “drop-and-hook” operations involving multiple drivers and trucks. Inceptio’s L2+ system directly addresses these pain points by reducing fatigue and extending safe driving hours, IDTechEx said.
