Self-driving truck technology developer Plus has completed a driverless Level 4 truck demonstration on a highway. The truck was driven using Plus’s Level 4 autonomous driving technology, without a safety driver, teleoperator, or any other forms of human intervention.

The driverless Level 4 truck demonstration was completed on the Wufengshan highway in China’s largest economic centre of Yangtze Delta. According to Plus, the driverless truck drove smoothly and safely in typical highway traffic during the demonstration.

The demonstration was conducted with a special permit on the newly built highway, with Plus being the first company to be granted such a permit in China.

Plus expects to launch pilot operations of a fully driverless truck for use in a dedicated environment in 2022.

Plus is applying the Level 4 tech used in the demo to deploy a commercial driver-in product for semi trucks called PlusDrive. PlusDrive can either be a standard configuration of newly built trucks or added to existing trucks.

“The driverless demo highlights the ability of our Level 4 autonomous driving technology to enable driverless highway operations in a semi truck. The demo shows the safety, maturity, and functionality of our technology, and we are excited to continue to work closely with our suppliers, fleet customers, and OEM partners to further develop, test, and refine a driverless product for commercial deployment,” said Shawn Kerrigan, COO and Co-founder of Plus.