Driverless port vehicles start hauling boxes at Guangzhou's Nansha terminal
Westwell's first 20 Q-Chassis vehicles now share a Nansha terminal with human-driven traffic, and the project plans 60 by 2027.
At Guangzhou port's Nansha phase two container terminal in southern China, 20 driverless vehicles from Westwell (西井科技), a maker of autonomous vehicles and AI systems for logistics, had passed acceptance and entered operation by late September. They are its first batch of Q-Chassis heavy-duty transport vehicles there, according to a post by auto news service 网通社 on ifeng's self-media platform (凤凰网).
Guangzhou's state-owned assets regulator (广州市国资委) said recently that the vehicles now share the whole terminal with human-driven ones, the post says.
The Q-Chassis is an intelligent guided vehicle (IGV): a four-axle, eight-wheel carrier with a multi-sensor driving system and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications, and it needs no magnetic markers laid in the pavement. Westwell says it parks within 30 millimeters of its target and lines itself up automatically with more than 95% accuracy.
Mixed-traffic tests began in February, when Guangzhou Port Group (广州港集团) said the vehicles used 5G and BeiDou satellite positioning to handle junctions and blind spots. The project plan calls for 60 Q-Chassis at phase two by 2027.
Sources: 凤凰网 ifeng (网通社), Westwell (company website)
Editor: Ian Lamont
