One broad transformation is that the trucking industry in China is changing from one in which individual drivers dominated, to one with fleets holding the majority share, said Gui Lingfeng, principal at Kearney Strategy Consultants.
It's a critical step toward monetization in a nascent business that's drawn many investor dollars, with relatively little to show for it so far. In addition, Chinese authorities require all newly manufactured trucks since 2022 to come with basic driver-assist tech for warning against forward collision and lane departure, Gui said.
"In terms of customers, there is a sort of a counter-cyclical effect," Inceptio CEO Julian Ma said in an interview in late August."The economy is getting tighter so the cost saving motivation is getting stronger, not weaker — that makes our customers more anxious to use our products."China's logistics companies have seen enormous growth over the last several years, thanks to the rise of e-commerce. That's led to price wars, amid slowing slowing economic growth.
Ma said Inceptio's focus over the next three years is on cost-sensitive customers, such as in logistics. He expects driver-assist features will dominate for the next few years, with 2028 the most optimistic scenario for the commercial deployment of fully driverless trucks.Kargobot, backed by ride-hailing giant Didi, operates more than 100 autonomous-driving trucks between Tianjin, near Beijing, and the northern province of Inner Mongolia.