KargoBot

卡尔动力

KargoBot is a Chinese autonomous freight company that develops Level 4 driving systems for heavy-duty trucks and runs them in commercial bulk-logistics service, mainly across North and Northwest China. It was founded in 2021, grew out of DiDi's autonomous trucking effort and was spun off from DiDi in October 2024; third-party company databases place its headquarters in Haidian District, Beijing. In December 2024 it opened a global innovation R&D headquarters in Kangbashi District, Ordos, Inner Mongolia, covering AI research, autonomous driving system design, cloud dispatch operations and transport robot development. Its chief executive is Wei Junqing.

The core technology is what the company calls hybrid intelligent platooning, marketed as KargoOmni: a lead truck with a human driver guides several L4 autonomous follower trucks, so one operator manages a convoy. KargoBot reports labour savings of up to 83 percent and fuel savings of around 10 percent in the platoon model, and a smart logistics dispatch platform links vehicle autonomy with scheduling. At a launch event in Qipanjing, Ordos, on 22 September 2026 it presented three product lines: hybrid intelligent platooning, already deployed at scale with a stated 10 to 18 percent improvement in transport margins and one operator handling two to three vehicles; single-vehicle intelligence for short-haul routes, industrial parks and ports; and cockpit-less transport robots, trucks without a driver cab that are still in testing and iteration. In October 2026 it began running a mixed freight network in Ordos that combines manned trucks, cabbed autonomous trucks and cabless transport robots.

Operating scale reported in March 2026 included more than 400 autonomous trucks, cumulative freight of 1.2 billion tonne-kilometres, over 35 million km of testing and operation in more than 10 provincial regions, more than 50 unmanned commercial operation licences and logistics services for over 20 clients, with a target of 1,000 autonomous trucks by the end of 2026. Freight served includes coal, steel, express parcels, industrial products, components and agricultural goods across Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Gansu, Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Hebei. In 2024 it was among the first companies authorised for open-road platoon tests in Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Tianjin and Hebei, and in 2025 it received one of China's first commercial pilot qualifications for fully unmanned platoons. The company reports eight OEM partners and about 30 ecosystem partners, with named vehicle partners including Shaanxi Automobile, Zhizi Automobile and SuperPanther, and its operations are integrated with the Ordos Group from coal production through loading and unloading. A training scheme it calls the Wrangler Project certifies experienced truck drivers from partner fleets as autonomous platoon managers.

In May 2025 KargoBot closed a Series A+ round that brought its 2025 fundraising to nearly RMB 300 million, with investors including Ordos State-owned Assets Investment Holding Group, Shenzhen Capital Group, Shaanxi Auto Fund and Orinno Capital. In March 2026 it announced a Series B of more than USD 100 million co-led by Horizon Robotics and Gaorong Ventures, with Hongqi Investment, Fengshion Capital and Orient Renaissance Capital participating; Horizon Robotics and KargoBot had formed a strategic alliance on L4 autonomous trucking in December 2025.