(Yicai) Oct. 17 -- KargoBot, the autonomous driving freight business of Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, will begin to operate independently after receiving a CNY450 million (USD61.5 million) investment from Inner Mongolia Ordos Investment Holding Group.

KargoBot will operate independently from Didi to develop more flexibly with separate financing and external partners and accelerate commercialization, Chinese tech media outlet 36Kr reported today, citing people familiar with the matter. Voyager Group, the autonomous driving unit of Didi, will remain KargoBot’s majority shareholder.

Meng Xing, chief operating officer of Voyager, will serve as the chairman of KargoBot, Wei Junqing, head of Voyager’s innovative business, will become KargoBot’s chief executive officer, and Huang Zhou, former head of corporate development at Voyager, will serve as KargoBot’s chief financial officer, according to the report.

Didi launched KargoBot in 2021. In April, Voyager announced that it expanded its Level-4 autonomous driving passenger car solutions to truck logistics and freight transportation at KargoBot, which started trial operations in northern and northwestern China.

KargoBot has 150 autonomous driving heavy trucks, mainly transporting coal and other bulk commodities in northwest China and North China. It adopts a hybrid intelligent mode, which can allow one driver to lead multiple autonomous driving trucks with full L4 capability.

Voyager began to carry out autonomous driving freight business because the scale of bulk commodity logistics is huge, with relatively centralized routes, and freight drivers are becoming increasingly less, Wei said at the Shanghai Auto Show in April.

Editor: Futura Costaglione