Self-driving truck startup Inceptio announced on Tuesday that it has reached 50 million kilometers (31.1 million miles) of public autonomous driving with zero accidents on Chinese highways in a commercial trial with local couriers such as JD Logistics and ZTO since late 2021. Autonomous rigs enabled by Inceptio’s NOA (Navigation on ADAS-advanced driver-assistance system) perform 75% better than those operated by humans in avoiding crashes and preventing lane departures, according to figures jointly released by the company and China Pacific Insurance, one of the country’s largest insurers. Meanwhile, Inceptio stated that its autonomous trucks, with a safety driver behind the wheel at all times, reduce oil consumption by up to 7% compared to those operated by veteran drivers. In 2021, Inceptio closed a $270 million funding round from Chinese tech giants Meituan and JD Logistics, the online retailer JD’s delivery arm, and has been backed by Sequoia China (now Hongshan), the Chinese unit of the US venture capital firm. [Inceptio announcement, in Chinese]
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