Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are making efforts frequently. Who will be the first to seize the high ground of autonomous driving?

With policy support, China is at the forefront of the world in the development and application of driverless technology. At the same time, competition in the field of autonomous driving is also extremely fierce, from first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, new first-tier cities such as Wuhan, Chongqing and Changsha, to second- and third-tier cities such as Wuxi, Cangzhou and Hengyang, and even fifth-tier city Yangquan, all of which are participating in this "competition".

In recent years, the central and local governments have successively launched a series of supporting policies to promote the advancement and commercialization of driverless technology. Since February 2020, the "Intelligent Vehicle Innovation and Development Strategy" jointly issued by 11 national ministries and commissions including the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has accelerated the development of autonomous driving.

In August, the General Office of the Ministry of Natural Resources issued the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Pilot Application of High-Precision Maps for Intelligent Connected Vehicles", proposing to carry out pilot applications of high-precision maps for intelligent connected vehicles in six cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Chongqing.

As the development of the smart car industry has been elevated to the level of national development strategy, major cities in China have been guiding and promoting the development of the local autonomous driving industry. Especially since this year, some cities have accelerated the introduction of relevant policies and the implementation of industrial commercialization.

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A battle that originally took place between companies began to spread to cities.

Beijing's most complete

Create "smart subway", "smart bus", "smart parking" and "smart road"

On May 7, 2022, Beijing issued the "Beijing Transportation Development and Construction Plan for the 14th Five-Year Plan Period", which clearly stated that it will accelerate the digital transformation and intelligent upgrading of transportation, improve the level of transportation intelligence, and create "smart subway", "smart bus", "smart parking" and "smart road" demonstration projects. By 2025, the total mileage of smart roads will exceed 300 kilometers.

At the same time, we will promote the implementation of technologies such as vehicle networking and autonomous driving. On the basis of pilot projects, we will gradually promote the intelligent networking transformation of traditional transportation infrastructure, build new transportation facilities that integrate vehicles and roads, and expand the scope of autonomous driving pilot projects in a safe and orderly manner, and promote the application of autonomous driving technology in the transportation industry.

Two days later, the first batch of driverless buses in Beijing appeared in Yizhuang Economic Development Zone. Eight intelligent networked passenger buses from Baidu, Qingzhou Zhihang, and SenseTime became the holders of the first batch of test licenses. Earlier in late March, a series of detailed rules were issued to fill the regulatory gap, laying the foundation for the large-scale and commercial application of new scenarios for intelligent networked passenger buses.

On April 28, the "Beijing Intelligent Connected Vehicle Policy Pilot Zone Passenger Vehicle Unmanned Road Testing and Demonstration Application Management Implementation Rules" was officially released, launching the first unmanned passenger vehicle operation pilot in China. Compared with the previous "self-driving taxis" equipped with safety officers in the main driving seat, the pilot program allows unmanned passenger driving with safety officers in the co-pilot seat. Baidu and Pony.ai became the first companies to receive the unmanned demonstration application road test notice in the pilot zone.

According to incomplete statistics, about one-third of the country's autonomous driving companies are currently based in Beijing. As one of the earliest cities in China to carry out autonomous driving tests, Beijing has currently issued the most comprehensive autonomous driving testing regulations.

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The earliest in Shanghai

Four complementary autonomous driving test areas

Among many cities, Shanghai was the first to issue policy documents, the first to set up a national industrial demonstration group for self-driving cars, and the first city in China to open test roads and issue test licenses. At present, the industry ecosystem of intelligent connected vehicles has taken shape.

Shanghai has built four staggered and complementary autonomous driving test zones: Jiading District has built an "L3+ Highly Automated Driving Innovation Demonstration Zone"; Lingang New Area has built an "Innovation Demonstration Zone for New Future Transportation Models"; Fengxian District has built an "Innovation Demonstration Zone for Intelligent Driving in the Whole Travel Chain"; and Pudong New Area has built an "Innovation Demonstration Zone for Integrated Transportation Infrastructure".

On January 17, 2022, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology announced that Shanghai will promote the development of intelligent connected vehicles in 4 aspects in 2022: First, focus on traditional car companies, new forces, and technology companies, and play the leading role of the "big terminal" and "big platform" of the whole vehicle; second, promote breakthroughs in the "three intelligences" terminals (intelligent driving, intelligent networking, and intelligent cockpit), and support key research on environmental perception, decision-making algorithms, control execution, vehicle-mounted interactive terminals, high-precision maps, roadside equipment, information security, etc. Third, accelerate the commercialization and application, and carry out exploration of new business forms such as intelligent public transportation, unmanned sanitation, and unmanned delivery in specific pilot areas; fourth, promote the coordinated development of policies, standards, and brands, formulate the "Shanghai Intelligent Connected Vehicle Terminal Industry Development Action Plan", and support the legislation of driving without safety officers in Pudong.

Then on February 15, Shanghai implemented the "Shanghai Intelligent Connected Vehicle Testing and Application Management Measures", which mentioned that Shanghai will give priority to supporting the testing and application of intelligent connected vehicles in application fields such as logistics distribution, short-distance shuttle, intelligent public transportation, and maintenance operations, and cultivate new business forms in the field of intelligent transportation. Also in February, Shanghai released the list of selected pilot projects for the demonstration and application of intelligent connected vehicles in Shanghai in 2022, covering scenarios such as smart taxis, smart trains, smart retail, smart distribution, and smart cleaning.

The "Shanghai Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Development of the New Energy Vehicle Industry (2021-2025)" proposes that by 2025, Shanghai will achieve large-scale production of conditional autonomous driving smart cars, and highly autonomous driving smart cars will achieve commercial application in limited areas and specific scenarios.

Guangzhou Frontier

Commercial exploration of driverless cars has been launched in many fields

As one of the first cities in China to carry out road testing of autonomous vehicles, Guangzhou has the lowest cost for closed testing of autonomous vehicles in the country. It is also the first city in the country to propose the construction of a first-level pilot demonstration zone.

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On April 24, Pony.ai announced that it had won the bid for the 2022 taxi capacity quota in Nansha District, Guangzhou. This is the first taxi operating license issued to an autonomous driving company in China. From May, Pony.ai will start charging operations within the 800 square kilometers of Nansha, and will gradually expand its business to other areas of Guangzhou.

On April 30, Guangzhou's first batch of self-driving convenience lines officially opened for passenger testing. The first batch of self-driving convenience lines are located in Bio-Island, Huangpu District, and Pazhou Digital Economic Zone, Haizhu District. The Guangzhou Bus Group's micro-circulation self-driving buses that provide services are L4 level self-driving buses, equipped with a safety officer, and can carry 6 passengers. At the same time, Yutong Environmental Sanitation officially delivered 50 pure electric self-driving washing and sweeping vehicles to WeRide. This is China's first front-mounted mass-produced fully unmanned sanitation vehicle (Robosweeper), jointly built by Yutong and WeRide, and will be tested on public roads throughout Guangzhou's Nansha District from May.

It can be seen that Guangzhou has recently started commercial exploration of unmanned driving in public buses, taxis, and road sweepers. In fact, in the field of autonomous driving, Guangzhou has won many "firsts in the country", including: the first city to approve 5G remote driving tests, the first city to recognize road test permits for intelligent connected vehicles in other regions, the first city to issue passenger test licenses, the first city to carry out batches of Robotaxi technology verification, and the first city to carry out road tests on the main roads in the central urban area, etc.

Shenzhen is the most open

Intelligent connected vehicle industry cluster is formed

Shenzhen, as the forefront of China's reform and opening up, is home to two major ICT giants, Huawei and BYD, as well as new energy vehicle champions, as well as scientific and technological innovation stars in the field of autonomous driving such as Yuanrong Qixing. Naturally, it is unwilling to fall behind.