Baidu-backed company unveils smart new energy truck

DeepWay, a Baidu-backed company, on Thursday night unveiled Xingtu, a smart new energy heavy-duty truck, marking Baidu's entry into the multi-trillion-dollar global freight market.

The first generation of Xingtu is designed to enable L3 self-driving on high-speed freight routes and achieve L4 capabilities on these same routes between 2024 and 2026.

Powered by Baidu's artificial intelligence technology stack and the Apollo autonomous driving platform, Xingtu is a prime example of next generation vehicles in the smart driving era.

"Autonomous driving must use advanced driverless technology to create new products that offer the ultimate experience in order to achieve commercial success," said Wang Yunpeng, vice-president and general manager of autonomous driving technology at Baidu.

"We aim to create value in real-life scenarios such as transporting people as well as delivery and life services. This new generation of vehicles is by no means just modified trucks -- they are robot trucks," Wang added.

Equipped with 10 onboard cameras, 5 millimeter wave radar and three infrared detectors, along with advanced algorithms, Xingtu can achieve end-to-end autonomous driving – from perception to planning – within 100 milliseconds, and ultralong range detection of more than 1 kilometer.

At a full load of 49 tons, Xingtu's customized 450 kilowatt-hour battery pack can travel up to 300 kilometers on a single charge. In addition, DeepWay has developed a quick-swap solution for the battery, which enables freight drivers to swap out their battery in 6 minutes.

This new energy heavy-duty truck adds intelligent freight to Baidu's existing autonomous driving solutions including passenger cars, Apollo Go robotaxis and minibuses, expanding the applications of intelligent driving to industry and business.

DeepWay is a joint venture company created by Baidu and Lionbridge, a leading Chinese commercial vehicle intelligent service platform, in 2020 to focus on the development and manufacturing of smart new energy heavy-duty trucks, offering intelligent driving solutions for the truck freight market.

In the near term, DeepWay will focus on the R&D and manufacturing of smart new energy heavy-duty trucks and promote the commercialization of L4 autonomous driving technology in the China truck freight industry in the coming years.