100 autonomous electric trucks begin work in giant Mongolia mine

A cluster of 100 autonomous electric mining trucks have been officially put into operation at the Yimin Open-Pit Mine in Inner Mongolia.

Powered by tech giant Huawei’s 5G-Advanced (5G-A) network, the 100-unit truck cluster is the first so-called “vehicle cloud network” to be put into operation.

China’s state-run electricity generator China Huaneng Group partnered with Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group, Huawei, and State Grid Smart Vehicle Network to form a consortium to create the world’s first zero-carbon, autonomous, and intelligent open-pit mine transportation system.

Each electric truck boasts a load capacity of 90 metric tonnes and is capable of working in a range of conditions, down to -40℃ while delivering 20 per cent greater efficiency than a human-driven truck.

Huawei Cloud Business’s dedicated car solution monitors the location of each truck in real time using crowdsourced maps and is capable of optimising routes so as to reduce operational waiting time and improving overall efficiency.

In a presentation held last week to announce the launch of its new truck cluster and autonomous operation, Huawei revealed that it had deployed a 5G-A network at the mine to provide the necessarily precise network coverage for unmanned driving routes.

This makes it the first 5G-A open-pit mine in the world, according to Huawei, and provides 500Mpbs uplink and 20ms latency.

Further, Huawei says that this same technology will be capable of supporting over 300 autonomous mining trucks and allow 24-hour uninterrupted production.