Apr. 20, 2026
Source:
Rino.ai, in collaboration with Xinyuan Automobile, has launched the industry’s first automotive-grade unmanned vehicle, the Rino RX Autonomous Cargo Van. Built to commercial vehicle standards, it redefines the underlying product architecture and re-evaluates the full life-cycle cost structure of Autonomous Delivery Vehicles.
“We must make unmanned vehicles true automotive products—safe and reliable like real cars. The industry should stop competing on price and instead compete on product quality, technology, and operational efficiency.”
What Does “Automotive-Grade” Mean?
Admittedly, unmanned logistics vehicles are a new category born from autonomous driving technology and applications, and there is currently no unified national standard or regulatory definition.
The “automotive-grade” standard defined by Rino.ai and Xinyuan Automobile is not a simple replication of traditional commercial vehicle requirements. Instead, it is a redefined end-to-end framework built on the century-long automotive industry’s development, manufacturing, and validation systems, combined with the unique technical characteristics, operational needs, and real-world scenarios of autonomous vehicles.
Huang Gang explained: “When we say ‘automotive-grade,’ it does not only refer to automotive-grade components. It means the entire vehicle development process follows applicable automotive industry standards, while also integrating the special requirements of autonomous driving technology and operational use cases.”
First, the development process
The unmanned vehicle development requirements and targets are decomposed into vehicle-level, system-level, and component-level design. Validation is then conducted in the reverse direction—from components to systems and the full vehicle.
The process is aligned with 63 vehicle-level standards and over 1,000 component-level standards. Meanwhile, Rino.ai has also established dedicated autonomous driving development, testing processes, and scenario-based test case libraries tailored to unmanned vehicle use cases.
Second, the manufacturing and supply chain system.
The RX upgrades and adapts a mature commercial vehicle production line with an annual capacity of 100,000 units, adding autonomous-driving-related processes such as ADAS installation, sensor calibration, and autonomous road testing.
Unlike the low-cost manufacturing approaches commonly seen in the unmanned vehicle industry, the RX uses over 100 sets of dedicated tooling and molds. Plastic parts are produced using injection molding instead of vacuum forming, and sheet metal parts use stamping processes rather than simple bending.
Although the upfront investment in tooling is higher, it brings clear advantages: higher production efficiency, better part precision and consistency, longer product lifespan, and lower long-term maintenance and spare parts costs—ultimately reducing total cost at scale.
In terms of the supply chain, the RX achieves 100% automotive-grade components across the entire vehicle. From the autonomous driving system to the drive-by-wire chassis, core parts come from 65 leading suppliers, including RoboSense, Horizon Robotics, Shuguang Axle, and Inovance.
Some components are shared with mature Xinyuan vehicle platforms—for example, the headlamp assembly is the same as that used on the Xinyuan E3L van.
This higher-standard supply chain and manufacturing system also creates a visible difference in product quality. As Huang Gang noted, some customers can immediately tell the RX is different at first sight.
