CiDi retrofits mining trucks to be self-driving
CiDi says shorter shift changes and faster haul cycles lifted August volume 11.7% at a coal mine in Inner Mongolia.
How do you get more from driverless mining trucks without buying more? At a large open-pit coal mine in Inner Mongolia, China, the answer started with the shift change, according to CiDi (希迪智驾), a Hong Kong-listed supplier of self-driving systems for mining trucks.
At this mine, 100 existing trucks were converted to drive themselves with CiDi's system. They haul away the rock and soil above the coal seam, in two shifts a day.
While the trucks drive themselves, people have to carry out important support tasks, such as inspections and refueling. Before August, those tasks and staff handovers at shift changes took about three hours a day. The customer's team, working with CiDi, began inspecting trucks one at a time instead of all together, and lined up refueling and inspections more tightly. That cut the time to about two hours, CiDi says, adding roughly an hour of hauling a day.
Other efficiency improvements included fixing badly laid-out curves and junctions. Over about the same distance and climb, the average haul cycle fell from about 50–55 minutes to about 45–50.
By CiDi's count, August's volume was 11.7% higher than July's, with no safety incidents, from the same fleet. More than 1,900 heavy mining trucks ran its system by June 30, all sold to mine owners and operators.
Sources: 希迪智驾 CiDi (newsroom), CiDi (H1 2026 results release)
Editor: Ian Lamont
