WeRide’s Unmanned Sanitation Trucks Begin Operation in Guangzhou

WeRide, an autonomous driving technology company, achieved cooperation with local government agencies in Guangzhou on September 1 to realize green, safe, efficient and intelligent sanitation work based on the firm’s unmanned sanitation trucks on the Guangzhou International Bio Island.

The Guangzhou International Bio Island covers a total area of about 1.9 square kilometers, spanning different road scenarios such as roadways, sidewalks, greenways, squares and tunnels. The total length of roads in the area is about 33 kilometers. The tunnel sections into and out of the island are closed and have low visibility, posing difficulties for the daily work of traditional manual sanitation workers.

WeRide’s unmanned sanitation trucks can drive safely without any driver, fully carrying out sanitation operations, including washing, dry sweeping, spraying and other functions. They can also complete open road sanitation tasks, such as road cleaning, sprinkling water to reduce dust, spraying and disinfecting to improve sanitation work efficiency.

At the same time, WeRide has built a remote cloud control center for its unmanned sanitation truck team. At present, the control center has realized the core functions of remote control, real-time dispatching, line management and status monitoring of the unmanned sanitation trucks to ensure the safe driving and operation of the vehicle.

From September 1, WeRide’s unmanned sanitation truck team will be officially put into operation on the Guangzhou International Bio Island, providing uninterrupted automatic driving sanitation operations from 0:00 to 19:00, seven days a week, with a total cleaning area of about 389,000 square meters.

WeRide officially launched China’s first unmanned sanitation truck with front loading and mass production in April 2022, and announced that the first batch of trucks started open road testing in May of the same year. During the four-month test, compared with the traditional sanitation operation mode, WeRide’s unmanned sanitation truck team reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 26,791 kg, saving an average of 57% in manpower.

SEE ALSO: Autonomous Driving Startup WeRide Responds No IPO Plan

At present, WeRide has successfully covered three commercial application scenarios: smart travel, smart freight and smart sanitation. This includes five innovative products: self-driving taxis, automated driving minibuses, self-driving same-city freight trucks, unmanned sanitation vehicles and high-end intelligent driving scenarios.