Futuristic, but not too much The Chinese Xingtu electric articulated lorry designed by the Shanghai subsidiary of the Italian Pininfarina (actually owned by the Indians of Mahindra & Mahindra) could enter service as early as 2023. The project is by DeepWay, a company of Baidu, the internet giant of the Middle Kingdom listed both on Nasdaq and on the main list of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. “This new generation of vehicles are by no means just modified trucks, they are robot trucks,” summarized Yunpeng Wang, head of the Autonomous Driving Technology division and vice president of Baidu. The heavy industrial vehicle (up to 49 tons of cargo) is equipped with eleven on-board cameras, an infrared detector, millimeter wave radar and a Lidar sensor. DeepWay can thus anticipate a “complete autonomous driving” thanks to the detection capability in a radius of over one kilometer. As part of the Apollo project (Apollo Go are Baidu’s robotaxis) that preceded the development of the vehicle, about 20 million kilometers have already been traveled on an experimental level from 2013 onwards.
75 times the equator without a driver. In China, the record for self-driving vehicles
At least initially intended only for Chinese uses, the electric articulated lorry is credited with a range of up to 300 kilometers. The battery, developed specifically for the Xingtu, has a capacity of 450 kWh for which a recharge in one hour is guaranteed. Alternatively, DeepWay aims to be competitive also by offering its replacement in just 6 minutes, shortening the uneconomic downtime.
The simulations conducted with the China Automobile Research Institute attribute to the articulated vehicle an aerodynamic drag coefficient of 0.35, which, again according to rumors circulated in recent months, should be lower than the Tesla Semi (0.36). For the American industrial vehicle, up to 36 tons of load capacity and a mileage of between 482 and 800 kilometers had been declared. The launch of the vehicle has been officially postponed to 2022: in theory it should arrive before the Chinese rival.
DeepWay also ensures that “the vehicle is much easier to control, more stable and safer to use”. The “robot truck” is “a significant milestone for both companies”, underlined Simone Tassi, general manager of Pininfarina Shanghai.
And if the food is futuristic, the lines are futuristic. «Heavy trucks are evolving rapidly to adapt to a rapidly changing environment – explained Matteo Piguzzi, Head of Design at Pininfarina Shanghai – DeepWay’s sophisticated design introduces a new advanced language, in which efficiency and aerodynamics work. together to create an iconic external shape ». In the same cabin there are elements of greater comfort for the drivers with separate spaces for driving, work, leisure and rest. Pininfarina and DeepWay speak of “ultra comfortable seats and beds”.