The head of the Ministry of Transport has outlined the deadline for the appearance of unmanned trucks on the roads of the Russian Federation

Autonomous trucks may appear on Russian highways in 2028. This was stated by the head of the Ministry of Transport and candidate for the post of Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Andrey Nikitin during a speech in the State Duma on October 21.

"As part of the Unmanned Logistics Corridors project, autonomous trucks from KamAZ, Yandex and Navio companies are currently operating on the M-11 Neva, TSKAD, M-4 Don and M-12 Vostok highways. By 2028, we plan to bring trucks without a driver in the cabin to public roads," Nikitin said.

In July, Sergey Nazarenko, chief designer of innovative vehicles at KamAZ PJSC, also reported that fully unmanned KamAZ trucks, which do not require a driver in the cockpit, are scheduled to enter public roads in 2028. According to him, engineers are now working to ensure that unmanned vehicles can work out the entire route without the need for human intervention "in 99.99% of cases."

They drive themselves: fully autonomous cars will appear on the roads of the Russian Federation

In two years, unmanned vehicles are planned to be released on all highways of the country.

On March 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the movement of unmanned trucks along the M-12 Vostok highway during the opening ceremony of the transport industry facilities, which was held via video link. The project started with a simultaneous trip along the route of highly automated vehicles (VATS) of three domestic manufacturers of unmanned vehicles — Yandex, Navio and KAMAZ. As the president noted, by 2028, the fleet of unmanned trucks will number 992 vehicles, and by the end of 2030 it will exceed 4 thousand units.