No pit stops: Chinese coal mine makes big upgrade with autonomous electric trucks

In north China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, home to the country’s largest coal reserves, a vast open-pit mine cuts deep into the earth, shrouded in clouds of dust. Winters here are long and brutal, with temperatures plunging to as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit).In older, more traditional days, hundreds of truck drivers, bundled in heavy winter gear, had to brave icy roads and the risk of frostbite as they hauled loads through the pit. When dense fog and snow rolled in, visibility could fall so low that drivers had to stop work for fear of a fatal crash.Today, however, an observer at the edge of the same pit could see a convoy of electric mining trucks rumble deep into the mine. A closer look would reveal something remarkable: no one behind the wheel.