KargoBot.ai and Horizon Robotics have announced a broad strategic alliance aimed at commercializing Level-4 (L4) autonomous trucking across China, marking a major step toward scaled deployment of driverless heavy-duty freight operations. The companies signed a memorandum of understanding at the Horizon Together 2025 event, outlining plans to integrate their technological ecosystems and accelerate rollout of next-generation autonomous freight solutions.
China’s autonomous freight sector is expected to shift from validation trials to large-scale expansion in 2025, supported by a road-freight market exceeding 7.5 trillion yuan. Analysts forecast that by 2035, more than half of China’s heavy trucks could operate autonomously.
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The partnership between KargoBot and Horizon Robotics is designed to capitalize on this momentum by combining Horizon’s mass-production experience in passenger-vehicle ADAS systems with KargoBot’s accumulated expertise in L4 freight operations.
The companies plan to merge datasets from urban roadways, expressways and long-haul corridors with KargoBot’s proprietary MMLA architecture and world-model technology, advancing both single-vehicle intelligence and fleet-level coordination. By doing so, they aim to create a more capable, freight-specific AI model that supports complex convoy operations and scalable logistics automation.
KargoBot will integrate Horizon Robotics’ Journey® 6P computing platform into its L4 autonomous systems, enabling localized hardware optimization and cost reductions. The company has already lowered hardware costs to around 90,000 yuan per truck while improving system performance through engineering refinements and a more streamlined supply chain. Horizon’s Journey® family — known for energy-efficient, multi-core designs — will also support new domain controllers under co-development by both companies.
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At Auto Shanghai 2025, the partners will unveil “KargoBot Space,” a next-generation transport robot described as the first of its kind. The machine will operate on Horizon’s Journey® computing architecture and is slated for mass production and pilot deployment in the first half of 2026. KargoBot said it has completed end-to-end autonomous freight loops and is preparing for scaled commercial rollout.
The alliance will extend across mass-production planning, customer operations and scenario expansion, with both companies aiming to establish a shared technological foundation for the broader logistics sector. The joint effort is intended to speed up industrial adoption of autonomous trucking and reduce logistics costs nationwide.