The Jingkai Intelligent Manufacturing 2045 Innovation Valley -- located in Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (WHDZ) in Wuhan, in Central China’s Hubei province -- has been making huge progress in promoting 5G autonomous driving, according to the official WeChat account of the WHDZ.
The innovation valley had done so with the introduction of the Sharing Box, an unmanned delivery logistics vehicle developed by resident auto manufacturer Dongfeng Motor Co.
The Sharing Box adopts cutting-edge technologies -- including intelligent sensing, intelligent interconnections and intelligent decision-making -- and combines scenario applications to provide smart logistics cooperation solutions.
Its makers said it was shaped as a cuboid and the body has no cabin. An identical number of containers and control screens are placed on both sides of the vehicle’s body.
The containers are divided into three types: large, medium and small. It can accept two users for express deliveries.
WHDZ officials said that after more than a year of testing, the Sharing Box technology is now mature and is currently ready for commercial operations. It is expected that Wuhan citizens will be able to enjoy the express delivery service provided by the Sharing Box at the end of this year or the start of 2021.
In addition, in response to user needs, research staff have added a transformable function to the Sharing Box. This makes it not only a courier cabinet, but also can be converted into mobile vending machines, book reading stations and other forms.
Officials said the innovation valley has attracted dozens of upstream and downstream enterprises which have joined the autonomous vehicle industry production and supply chain.
They are carrying out research and development tests on autonomous driving vehicles in dozens of application scenarios -- such as unmanned patrol vehicles, unmanned logistics vehicles and unmanned road sweepers.
WHDZ officials said technologies applied in some products are quite mature and commercial applications can be realized within the next one or two years, with broad and exciting prospects.
