<div id="readability-page-1"><span></span><div id="ArticleBody-InlineImage-108299686"><div><div><p>The steering wheel on an Inceptio Technology autonomous truck in Jinan, Shandong Province, China, on Thursday, April 18, 2024.</p><p>Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images</p></div></div></div><div><p>BEIJING — While AI updates make headlines every few weeks, those advances are not enough to get self-driving vehicles on the road more quickly. </p><p>That's according to Chinese autonomous trucking companies, who say that improvements in large language model, from Anthropic's Claude to China's DeepSeek, have little impact on the timeline for vehicle deployment. </p><p>“The world's best linguistics [expert] doesn't mean he's a good driver,&#34; Pony.ai CEO James Peng told reporters last week. &#34;AI is a very broad term. They're completely different things. Absolutely ... zero relevance.&#34; </p><p>&#34;When we process language, when we play sports, when we drive we all use different skills,&#34; he said.</p><p>Autonomous driving uses artificial intelligence to imitate a human driver with a combination of sensors, chips and algorithms. But the real-world training data needed is very different from what powers large language models such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, requiring what's called world models.</p><p>Inceptio, a self-driving truck startup, is still sticking to its timeline for a mid-2028 commercialization milestone, unaffected by the broad advances in AI, CEO Julian Ma told CNBC.</p><p>By the third or fourth quarter of 2028, he expects Inceptio will have racked up 5 billion kilometers (3.1 billion miles) of truck driving data in China — enough to allow fully autonomous heavy-duty trucks to ply public roads. </p></div><div><p>With 5 billion kilometers in collected driving data, AI can extrapolate that into 50 billion km of experience in a world model — which is then sufficient to allow a heavy-duty truck to drive completely on its own, Ma said. He expects the trucks can then start operating without any humans inside in certain parts of the country.</p><p>Achieving that goal in about two years is already quite fast, he said, noting that in order for driverless trucks to become a widespread reality, they will need partnerships with manufacturers and regulatory approval — in addition to the tech.</p><p>Autonomous vehicles rely heavily on data about driving on roads. Just like robotaxi companies, self-driving truck operators run manned tests in order to gather training data safely. </p><p>Inceptio has by far recorded the most commercial autonomous truck miles in the industry, exceeding U.S. rivals, according to ARK Invest's Big Ideas 2026 report in January. At the time, the company had driven 250 million miles — exponentially more than fellow Chinese autonomous driving company <span id="RegularArticle-QuoteInBody-3">Pony.ai<span><span id="-WatchlistDropdown"></span></span></span>, which held second place at 4.2 million miles. </p><p>U.S.-based rivals Aurora, Kodiak and Gatik rounded out the top five, with a combined 8.9 million miles, according to the report.</p><p>Inceptio's Ma said in late April the company's trucks had driven 700 million kilometers (434.96 million miles), and aimed for 1 billion kilometers (621.4 million miles) by the end of the year. He said the company can use AI to identify which specific scenarios to focus on for gathering test data.</p><p>At the Beijing auto show, Pony.ai also announced an upgrade to its PonyWorld 2.0 AI model to improve its ability to collect specific data and train the model more efficiently. The company, which already operates robotaxis in China and other countries, unveiled a fully driverless light-duty truck that it developed with battery giant <span id="RegularArticle-QuoteInBody-4">CATL<span><span id="-WatchlistDropdown"></span></span></span>. </p></div><h2>Regulatory challenges</h2><div><p>U.S. and Chinese robotaxi companies have rapidly expanded operations in the last year, with several tech executives agreeing that the industry had reached a tipping point.</p><p>But Chinese authorities have suspended new autonomous driving licenses after a slew of Baidu Apollo Go robotaxis stopped mid-traffic and caused collisions in Wuhan, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing sources.</p><p>In December, a power outage in San Francisco caused autonomous vehicle operator Waymo's robotaxi fleet to stall across the city.</p></div><div><div id="RegularArticle-RelatedContent-1"><div><div><h2>Read more electric car stories</h2><div><ul><li>Foreign car companies bet on technology to hang onto once-lucrative China auto market</li><li>Alibaba's Qwen AI is coming to cars, allowing drivers to order food and book hotels by voice</li><li>EV demand is getting a boost from the Iran war — just as auto giants pivot back to combustion engines</li><li>BYD and KFC China collaborate to offer 9-minute refueling stations</li><li>Volkswagen announces voice AI in its Chinese cars from later this year</li><li>Toyota to invest $1 billion to increase U.S. production in Kentucky, Indiana plants</li><li>Nissan's new hybrid is a U.S.-first that mixes EV driving with a gas engine</li><li>Stellantis-backed Leapmotor delivers more than 100,000 EVs for fourth-straight quarter as BYD sales fall</li><li>EV battery startup pivots to defense industry amid Iran war, weak electric vehicle market</li><li>Chinese robotaxi companies forge ahead with UAE expansion despite Iran war</li><li>Volkswagen pushes into driver-assist EVs without Nvidia, exec says</li></ul></div></div></div></div></div><div><p>While China has 5-year development plans that increasingly emphasize tech goals, Ma said it's often companies that take the lead in driving innovation. </p><p>&#34;We make it happen,&#34; he said, before regulators see the technology in action and are convinced enough to provide policy support.</p><p>But it's clear that there's a long way to go before you see trucks and cars running around the country without drivers. </p><p>&#34;Automobiles are actually the most challenging area for AI, and exceeds the difficulty of embodied AI to some extent, because it involves safety,&#34; Ma said. Embodied AI includes humanoid robots. </p></div><div><p>Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.</p></div></div>

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<p>Chinese autonomous trucking companies assert that recent AI advancements do not expedite the rollout of self-driving vehicles. Executives from companies like Pony.ai and Inceptio Technology emphasize that the skills required for autonomous driving differ significantly from those used in AI language models. Inceptio maintains its mid-2028 commercialization timeline, aiming to gather 5 billion kilometers of driving data to enable fully autonomous trucks. However, regulatory challenges and the need for partnerships remain hurdles for widespread adoption.</p>

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China’s self-driving truck leaders say AI breakthroughs won’t accelerate rollout — here’s why