Magnit, together with Navio, tested autonomous cargo transportation along the highway M-12

2025

Tests of autonomous cargo transportation along the highway M-12

Magnit is expanding its network of autonomous cargo transportation. To improve efficiency, the company combines logistics flows of its own and commercial cargo of third-party customers. Together with the technological company Navio, Magnit launched the first test flight on an autonomous truck in a new direction - the Vostok M-12 highway. Magnit announced this on December 11, 2025.

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Фото: Magnet

The section is included in the route from the distribution center in St. Petersburg to the Magnit RC in Zelenodolsk (Republic of Tatarstan) and return to St. Petersburg. The length of the route is about three thousand kilometers. During the return flight, the company carried out commercial transportation of third-party customer's cargo.

The truck under the control of an AI driver in autonomous mode moved along the permitted sections on the M-11 highway, the Central Ring Road and the M-12 highway. The remaining sections of the track were passed under the control of a test driver who is in the tractor cabin while driving in autonomous mode to control the automated system.

The autonomous truck is equipped with an automated driving system, all stages of cargo transportation are tracked by the AI driver according to various criteria. The intelligent transport management system processes everything information about the environment and selects the optimal parameters for movement. car Fault tolerance is provided by redundancy of all key mechanisms.

Test passage confirmed that autonomous transport without a driver in the cab can almost 2.5 times, up to one day, reduce the time of delivery of goods on the St. Petersburg - Kazan route along the Neva, TsKAD M-11 and Vostok A-113 M-12 routes. For comparison, a standard flight from St. Petersburg to Kazan takes an average of 58 hours, since the driver must comply with the work and rest regime.

Magnit began testing autonomous cargo transportation in 2023 along the Neva M-11 highway. In total, the retailer completed almost 2 thousand flights by autonomous transport, the mileage exceeded 1.1 million km, and the volume of cargo transported reached 39 thousand tons.

{{quote 'author=said Fedor Pavlovsky, Deputy General Director, Director for Supply Chains and Logistics of Magnit retail chain. | Autonomous cargo transportation allows you to increase the efficiency of logistics, including by increasing the daily mileage and turnover of the fleet, and with a large-scale implementation, this technology will help reduce the final cost of products, because logistics costs are a significant part in the formation of prices on the shelf. Further scaling of autonomous cargo transportation will also accelerate the introduction of innovative solutions in transport and warehouse logistics (for example, robotic solutions for fast loading and unloading of goods). In addition, by eliminating the human error factor, autonomous transportation helps to reduce road accidents. We continue to expand the testing loop of this technology. AI-driver technology, integrated into the autonomous tractors of our Navio partner, successfully completed the first pilot flight with cargo along the Vostok M-12 highway, and next year we plan to launch regular flights along this most important transport artery,}}

Increase in the number of flights on autonomous trucks by M11 by two times

Magnet"" is increasing volumes cargo transportation autonomously. Since transport April 2025, the number of flights on the highway on M-11 "Neva" autonomous has trucks doubled, to 28 per week.

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Фото: Magnet

The partner is Navio, which since 2024 has been transporting Magnit goods on autonomous tractors between Moscow and St. Petersburg. By the end of 2025, the partners plan to increase the number of regular flights to 112 per week.

Cargo transfer from a conventional tractor to an autonomous one is carried out at approved points when entering and leaving the highway, the main and longest section of the route - the high-speed highway - the road train passes in autonomous mode. In some cases, the semi-trailer can be delivered directly to the consignee's warehouse. Semi-trailers involved in the project provide the necessary temperature regime and allow you to transport a wide range of food products without restrictions. When driving in autonomous mode, in the tractor cabin in accordance with the regulation governing the movement of highly automated vehicles (VATS) in Russia, there is an engineer whose task is to monitor and ensure safety for traffic participants in case of emergency situations.

Navio technology provides all the functionality of the driver behind the wheel. Autonomous truck equipped with an automated driving system, which includes a set of sensors and a computing module. The computer processes all information about the environment and selects the optimal parameters for the movement of the car. Fault tolerance of the system is ensured by redundancy of all key mechanisms.

Since 2023, Magnit has been testing autonomous cargo transportation along the M-11 highway. In total, the company completed almost 900 flights by autonomous transport, the mileage exceeded 555 thousand km, and the volume of transported goods - 17 thousand tons. In 2025, Magnit plans to expand the autonomous transportation project to new routes.

Magnit participates in the Federal Project "Unmanned Logistics Corridors" on the Neva M-11 highway as part of a single program of the experimental legal regime (EPR). EPR allows you to test digital innovations in freight transport, including the design, production and operation of highly automated vehicles and infrastructure for them, the development of services for the provision of transport and logistics services in the field of autonomous freight transportation. In the EPR program, Magnit acts as a customer for transportation, providing goods, and also shares its own expertise with the project participants.

Шаблон:Quote 'author=said Fedor Pavlovsky, director of supply chains and logistics at Magnit retail chain.

Шаблон:Quote 'author=noted Vladimir Buevich, Product Director of Avio Autonomous Trunk Freight.