WeRide announces self-driving Robo Street Sweepers roll off the assembly line, heading towards a large-scale road test in Guangzhou.
Robo Street Sweeper, the first mass-produced and purpose-built self-driving sweeper vehicle in China, has been launched by WeRide, a global leader in L4 autonomous driving. The launch also marks the first public appearance of Robo Street Sweeper and the first step toward a large-scale road test in Nansha District, Guangzhou, in May this year, with a fleet of more than 50 vehicles.
WeRide and Yutong Group collaborated to design and manufacture the Robo Street Sweeper for city-level environmental services. The Robo Street Sweeper is the first of its kind in the sweeper business, featuring a cockpit-free design that includes no steering wheel, accelerator, or brake pedals. After the debut of Mini Robobus, this is WeRide’s second product for mass production and purpose-built self-driving vehicles.
The Robo Street Sweeper demonstrates WeRide’s philosophy of “tech for good” to prompt a greener environment. This EV has a fully redundant chassis and is powered by WeRide’s leading L4 autonomous driving solution, enabling safe, fully driverless and all-day available operations. Under the self-driving mode, the fleet is able to perform comprehensive environmental services, such as sweeping, sprinkling and disinfection spraying.
WeRide has also created a proprietary cloud-based platform to manage the fleet of Robo Street Sweepers. For the smart city’s environmental services, the platform serves as the brain and command center. The system delivers real-time route, operation, and autonomous driving status information. It allows for intelligent scheduling, automated activation, remote dispatching, and route management, guaranteeing that daily operation like charging, water filling, garbage discharge, vehicle activation, and parking are carried out without the need for human interaction.
In May, a large-scale road test of the Robo Street Sweeper fleet will begin, with around 50 trucks in the initial batch covering Guangzhou’s Nanshan district.
Through a road test plan designed to handle real-life scenarios in the Nansha District, the fleet will be evaluated on technological and operational parameters. Road tests will also be undertaken after midnight to provide a better grasp of what happens on the front lines. In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Robo Street Sweeper is equipped with a zero-contact disinfection spraying system.
Accommodating the needs from different regions, timeslots, and services, WeRide has combined flexibility with extensive multi-scenario operation experiences. WeRide and the Nanshan government have joined hands in co-creating the leading pilot application of autonomous driving in China.
“Nansha District is the pioneer to assist autonomous driving road tests and operations,” Wei Min, Standing Committee Member of CPC Guangzhou Nansha District Committee, Executive Head of People’s Government of Nansha District, Guangzhou, said. The road test of WeRide Robo Street Sweepers in Nansha will be one of the largest in history. WeRide, as China’s leader in autonomous driving, has industry-leading experience in technology development, product innovation, and commercial operations.
“Under the accelerated urbanization process, we observed a surge of needs on environmental services. Meanwhile, with the emerging pandemic like COVID-19, the request on zero-contact environmental services has been raised due to public health concerns.” says Tony Han, the founder and CEO of WeRide. “By developing the self-driving Robo Street Sweeper, WeRide offers a package of environmental services without human intervention, and it will be available for city in a safer, greener and more efficient manner. In case of a public health emergency, the fleet will be the first and the most trusted resource to serve the public with the safe and reliable autonomous driving technology.”
WeRide has developed a series of innovative products, namely Robotaxi, Mini Robobus, Robovan and the most recent Robo Street Sweeper, with the aim to bring smart mobility, smart freight and smart environmental services to commercial applications, realizing the fullest potential of autonomous driving technology.
Source: WeRide