China's autonomous-driving suppliers pivot to freight as heavy trucks become the new battleground

Still, heavy trucks are heavy, have long braking distances and carry sharply varying loads, and their vehicle dynamics differ markedly from passenger cars.

Zhuoyu trains on mixed passenger and commercial vehicle data, adjusting model structure, data ratios and testing processes to produce a model suited to heavy trucks.

"Commercial-vehicle data costs several times what passenger-car data does — fuel is one factor, and tolls are much more expensive."

According to Pony.ai, Robotaxi, heavy trucks and light trucks share the same underlying autonomous-driving technology, though heavy trucks still need specific adaptation for body size, weight, braking distance and transport conditions, while traffic understanding and driving decisions can build on the shared technical foundation.

For passenger-car smart-driving suppliers, the contest used to be over who could deliver a feature first and who could win more vehicle-model designations.