Sberavtotech and Globaltruck launch unmanned cargo transportation along the Neva highway

The developer of autonomous driving technology, Sberavtotech, together with the cargo carrier Globaltruck, are launching commercial unmanned cargo transportation along the M-11 Neva Moscow-St. Petersburg highway, the press service of Sber reported.

Unmanned trucks with test drivers in the cab, who control the safety of the trip, will deliver goods from Moscow to St. Petersburg and back.

“The first prototypes of unmanned trucks have been developed and certified, a high-precision digital map of the M-11 highway has been created, tractors have been tested along existing Globaltruck routes,” Andrey Belevtsev, Senior Vice President and Head of the Technology Block at Sberbank, commented on the launch.

Ilya Dmitriev, Chairman of the Council of Directors of GlobalTruck Management, in turn, called digitalization and automation of processes the main drivers of the cargo transportation industry. The data received from electronics and “smart” vehicle systems can be used to develop digital logistics platforms, optimize the interaction between cargo owners and carriers, he added.

The fact that an experiment using unmanned vehicles will be launched on the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 24, 2022, during his speech at the Sberbank international conference Journey into the World of Artificial Intelligence. On the same day, the Ministry of Transport reported that the start of the experiment was scheduled for 2023.

Formerly Ministry of Transport informed on the launch of transportation by unmanned trucks along the M-11 highway from June 14. The largest carriers participate in the project: PEK, Globaltruck, Gazpromneft-Snabzhenie, the department noted.

The Ministry of Transport also noted that for the access of unmanned trucks to the M-11 highway, a number of conditions must be met. In particular, the car must be classified in the database of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as unmanned vehicles and pass an assessment of compliance with the safety requirements of FSUE NAMI. The Ministry of Transport noted that at that time only “Kamaz“, assuming that in the near future Sberavtotekh trucks will also enter the track.