(JW Insights) Oct 18 -- KargoBot, the autonomous driving freight business of Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, will begin to operate independently after receiving a RMB450 million ($61.5 million) investment from Inner Mongolia Ordos Investment Holding Group, Yicai Global reported on October 17.

KargoBot will operate independently from Didi to develop more flexibly with separate financing and external partners and accelerate commercialization, Chinese tech media outlet 36Kr reported on October 17, citing people familiar with the matter. Voyager Group, the autonomous driving unit of Didi, will remain KargoBot’s majority shareholder.

Didi launched KargoBot in 2021. In April, Voyager announced that it expanded its Level-4 autonomous driving passenger car solutions to truck logistics and freight transportation at KargoBot, which started trial operations in northern and northwestern China.

KargoBot has 150 autonomous driving heavy trucks, mainly transporting coal and other bulk commodities in northwest China and North China. It adopts a hybrid intelligent mode, which can allow one driver to lead multiple autonomous driving trucks with full L4 capability.

Voyager began to carry out autonomous driving freight business because the scale of bulk commodity logistics is huge, with relatively centralized routes, and freight drivers are becoming increasingly less, according to the Yicai Global report.

(Yuan XY/Gao J)