Chinese companies are taking advantage of the lack of regulation on the testing of autonomous vehicles as a way to develop the country's trucking industry.

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Foton and Baidu are currently creating a prototype of the self-driving truck. Road deliveries will be made easier in China with the use of self-driving long haul trucks. As automation technology develops rapidly, it will lower cost, reduce the occurrence of accidents, and increase efficiency among drivers by permitting longer periods of rest.

Xiaodi Hou, the chief training officer of TuSimple, said that freight transportation among different cities would be a lucrative market for China.

TuSimple is a company based both in San Diego and Beijing, which is currently developing an automated truck.

TuSimple has been collecting data on the number trucks driven manually. TuSimple has set a target of demonstrating the technology in the first quarter of 2017. A commercial demonstration would be made for the public in the following year.

China has approximately 7.2 million trucks and 16 million drivers, who are tasked with transporting goods to different cities.

A long-distance trip in an intercity route would require 2-3 drivers to complete the task. Through autonomous vehicles, this can be completed by one driver.

Government regulations for self-driving vehicles are currently in the works to ensure safety. 

In July, a Chinese auto regular said that authorities have started drafting rules for automated vehicles. Companies were also requested to limit their autonomous vehicle tests until it can be approved.

Hou said that the government of China would be less rigid when it comes to the rules of testing and commercialization of autonomous trucks since this would bring a lot of benefits.