ASTANA, May 28. /TASS/. Kazakhstan and Russia have launched a driverless cargo transportation project, with the first test routes completed between Astana and Moscow, Kazakhstan’s Vice Minister of Transport Damir Kozhakhmetov told TASS on the sidelines of the Eurasian Economic Forum.
"As part of cooperation between our two countries, we are integrating our digital solutions in order to move from the conventional approaches used previously into a new era of autonomous transportation. Two trucks departed simultaneously from Moscow and Astana and crossed the border checkpoint. In this way, we confirmed that we are already infrastructure-ready to move to a new level of cooperation," Kozhakhmetov said.
He specified that the launch of autonomous cargo transportation took place in May of this year. According to the vice minister, the project facilitates data exchange and electronic document management, while also improving the efficiency of cargo transportation.
"These trucks were autonomous, but under current regulations a driver still had to be inside because safety remains the top priority. However, the steering and driving functions were fully autonomous. We are now reviewing the results of the test launch and will move toward permanent implementation and practical operation," Kozhakhmetov explained.
Earlier, Russian Deputy Transport Minister Dmitry Zverev, speaking at the 5th Eurasian Economic Forum, announced that Russia’s Transport Ministry had carried out the first cross-border autonomous cargo shipment from Russia to Kazakhstan.
TASS is the information partner of the Eurasian Economic Forum.