On April 18, 2018, at the wharf of Qingdao Qianwan Container Terminal, FAW released their brand-new seventh generation product —J7 and published a L4 autonomous truck series.

Autonomous truck without cab--ICV（Inteligent Container Vehicle）

developed by FAW for port transportation

J7—Carrying the strategic mission of “National leading and world-class”

In order to meet the rapid development of logistics industry and high-end market demand, FAW successfully built the seventh generation product -- J7 after 7 years R&D.

The inauguration ceremony of FAW J7 was held simultaneously at Changchun plant, and the guests in Qingdao witnessed this highlight moment via broadcast live. In the video, a white luxury version of the J7 6 x 4 tractor is driven down from the production line under the crowding and applause of over 400 employees, which marks the formal entry of J7 into the mass production stage, a step closer to the market launching.

Changchun plant, photo by Zhang Wei

Changchun plant, photo by Zhang Wei

Since the J7 project started since 2011, a change of rebirth has been ushered in after seven years of R&D, from exterior and interior, configuration and details, design and manufacturing, etc. As a world-class high end heavy-duty truck competing benchmarking European products, J7 carries the strategic mission of FAW's "National leading and world-class".

Though many customers have already trying J7, we are not so mysterious about it. In fact, some key indicators tell us how incredible and amazing J7 is. The B10 life of driveline reaches 1.5 million km, and the oil change period of gearbox and rear axle can be extended to 200, 000 km, the noise of cab while idling is only 53 dB. In addition to a series of intelligent security technology and human-computer interaction technology, the most intelligent embodiment of J7 is that it can achieve L3 and L4 autonomous driving.

The future is coming

At the trend of "New four modernizations" (electrification, connectivity, automation and sharing) in the automobile industry, FAW’s J7, which is born with intelligence, may have the chance to overtake the curve.

During the conference, FAW's AI system UNI was officially unveiled, and a series of L4 level intelligent vehicles were displayed by video or live demonstrated including intelligent platooning, on-site real vehicle demonstration. At the wharf a few meters away from the event site, after Mr. Hu Hanjie, general manager of FAW Jiefang, pressing the start button, a J7, carrying L4 intelligent driving system, started slowly, and demonstrated a series of actions such as automatic loading, driving, steering, parking, unloading. As a smart vehicle with high level automation, high accuracy and high safety, this vehicle can automatically plan the driving track, detect obstacle avoidance, monitor the loading status and lighting system, monitor the oil quantity, and plan the route to fuel oil in the refueling area, fully meeting the operation needs of various ports.

FAW also demonstrated their intelligent product lines including electric cleaning vehicles combining intelligence and new energy resource, intelligent mining dump truck, urban intelligent logistics vehicles and urban intelligent buses, which face different scenes and different fields. At the same time, FAW signed the strategic cooperation agreement respectively with Port of Qingdao, Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co., Ltd for more extensive cooperation in the intelligent commercial vehicle development, core technology research, market promotion and operation. At present, FAW has cooperated with more than 40 top partners to build and develop the intelligent commercial vehicle ecosystem. In the future, FAW will focus on four core elements including vehicle, hardware, algorithm and manufacturing to build a complete intelligent ecosystem.

62 years ago, FAW made the first truck for P.R.China, and became the symbol of the domestic truck development. Although it went through ups and downs, it returned to the peak in recent years，the annual sales of more than 200,000 heavy trucks  as one single brand have made it the real leader. Today, after consolidating the position of the leader, FAW aims at the new field of intelligence, and occupied the commanding heights again. Sometimes, we must admit that in the automotive industry, it is really important to have deep foundations to lead. Then what is the foundation of FAW? It is all about everything self-owned!