MOSCOW, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Russia has launched unmanned truck operations along the M-12 Vostok highway, forming a corridor connecting St. Petersburg, Moscow and Kazan, the Kremlin press service reported on Tuesday.
"A good example of such innovations is unmanned transport, which has already proven its economic efficiency. Our unmanned vehicles have traveled 13 million kilometers on roads without accidents," Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the launch ceremony.
Russian Transport Minister Andrey Nikitin highlighted the potential economic gains of using unmanned trucks, noting that in a test run, an autonomous truck completed the 1,600-km journey between Kazan and St. Petersburg in 24 hours, compared with 58 hours for a conventional driver-operated truck.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev said the experiment to launch unmanned trucks began in 2023. Over the past three years, the fleet of autonomous trucks has grown from three to 95 vehicles, he said.
"We expect that the technological solutions being developed with businesses and the regulatory framework being created by the government will allow the number of unmanned trucks on the roads to reach 4,000 by 2030," Savelyev noted. ■
