Guangzhou’s autonomous driving mixed-traffic pilot program has been launched. What are the entry and exit conditions?

Guangzhou City has officially released two policy documents, "Opinions on Gradually Piloting Demonstration Operations of Intelligent Connected Vehicles (Autonomous Driving) Applications in Different Mixed Traffic Environments" and "Work Plan for Demonstration Operations of Intelligent Connected Vehicles (Autonomous Driving) Applications in Different Mixed Traffic Environments". It will launch an autonomous driving mixed traffic pilot based on the current development of the intelligent connected vehicle industry.

“Strict entry and strict exit”

Gao Yuyue, Deputy Secretary General and First-level Inspector of Guangzhou Municipal Government, said at the press conference that by 2025, multi-dimensional, comprehensive, large-scale urban traffic tests with different mixed traffic ratios, different degrees of participation in vehicle-road collaboration, and a variety of new travel services will be completed in five stages. On the basis that the demonstration application of autonomous driving vehicles in each stage has no active safety accidents for 180 days and has passed the evaluation and acceptance of the municipal special working group, the number of autonomous driving vehicles will be further increased, a new stage of autonomous driving mixed traffic tests will be carried out, and the mixed traffic pilot will be steadily promoted.

Chen Jianhua, chief economist of Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, introduced that the city will carry out mixed traffic pilot projects in Nansha District, Huangpu District and other Guangzhou intelligent networked vehicle road test pilot areas. In the early stage of the pilot project, it mainly supports passenger transport activities such as cruising taxis, online car-hailing, and buses, and cargo transportation activities such as ordinary road freight transportation. In the later stage, according to the development of technology, the Municipal Pilot Office will review and gradually open other application scenarios such as urban intelligent sanitation, express delivery, and postal services.

Chen Jianhua stressed: "Strict entry and exit will be implemented." In terms of entry conditions, clear regulations have been made for the people and vehicles involved, such as the testing time at home and abroad is not less than 24 months and the test mileage is not less than 1 million kilometers. At the same time, the total autonomous driving mileage is not less than 200,000 kilometers in the three-level test sections in the designated test area in Guangzhou, and no active traffic accidents or loss of control have occurred. In addition, all vehicles must purchase traffic accident third-party liability insurance of no less than 10 million yuan per unit, and carrier liability insurance of no less than 5 million yuan.

In terms of the exit mechanism, if the operating entity, operating vehicle, or safety officer fails to meet the requirements of the specific documents for access to the application demonstration operation, fails to supplement the intelligent connected vehicle (autonomous driving) application demonstration operation guarantee fund as required, seriously violates the relevant regulations on the application demonstration operation, or causes a traffic accident resulting in death or equal or higher liability, or other situations occur that may endanger national security, public safety, personal and property safety, etc., we will take measures such as interviews, suspension of operating qualifications, termination of operating qualifications, and recovery of operating license plates to minimize application risks.

The "Catalogue of Demonstration Application Scenarios for Intelligent Connected Vehicles (Internet of Vehicles) in Guangzhou" was released at the event, proposing that Guangzhou will accelerate the construction of nine application scenarios, including connected autonomous driving ride-hailing vehicles, BRT bus route collaborative optimization, Internet of Vehicles rapid passage at highway intersections, V2X collaborative driving traffic optimization, trunk logistics intelligent driving heavy trucks, autonomous driving shuttle buses, connected autonomous parking, autonomous driving special vehicles, and autonomous driving small service vehicles, focusing on travel optimization, demonstration operations, and public services.

Many places are accelerating the application of autonomous driving

At present, many places have opened up road testing for autonomous driving, and cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Changsha have opened manned testing permits.

A reporter from China Business News learned from the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology that Guangzhou has issued test notices to 127 intelligent connected vehicles under 10 testing entities, including 31 passenger test licenses for simulated commercial operations and 11 remote test licenses. Different types of tests, such as road, passenger, remote and truck tests, have been carried out on the first, second and third level roads opened in Guangzhou and the roads opened in the pilot area. So far, the total safe mileage of Guangzhou's autonomous driving companies' road tests has accumulated 2.55 million kilometers.

According to the "Beijing Autonomous Driving Vehicle Road Test Report (2020)", as of the end of 2020, Beijing has opened a total of 200 autonomous driving test roads in four districts, namely Haidian District, Shunyi District, Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, and Fangshan District, with a total length of 699.58 kilometers; general road test licenses have been issued to 87 vehicles from 14 autonomous driving companies; the cumulative road test mileage has exceeded 2.21 million kilometers, of which the manned test mileage has exceeded 1.02 million kilometers.

The "Shanghai Intelligent Connected Vehicle Open Road Testing Report (2020)" released by the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission on March 11 shows that as of the end of 2020, Shanghai has opened 243 test roads with a total length of 559.87 kilometers, and issued road testing or demonstration application qualifications to 22 companies and 152 vehicles. The number of companies and the number of licenses ranked first in the country, involving passenger cars, commercial vehicles, special operation vehicles and other models.

Zhou Yushan, Secretary General of the Guangdong Automobile Engineering Society, said in an interview with Yicai Global and other media that cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, and Changsha are relatively advanced in smart transportation and driverless driving. In comparison, Guangzhou's advantage lies in its relatively complete automotive industry chain and the large number of leading automakers. The new policy released this time is more advanced from the perspective of practical application and commercialization. Business can form a closed loop and generate economic benefits in the foreseeable future. Among the demonstration application scenarios released this time, scenarios such as intelligent driving heavy trucks for trunk logistics, autonomous driving shuttles, and networked autonomous parking are relatively simple and controllable, and will be easier to achieve large-scale commercial use.

Chen Jianhua revealed that in the next step, Guangzhou will speed up the issuance of supporting documents such as the "Safety Technical Requirements", "Periodic Safety Technical Inspection Standards" and "Accident Identification Specifications" for Guangzhou's intelligent connected vehicles (autonomous driving), establish a dual protection mechanism of third-party liability insurance for traffic accidents and carrier liability insurance and intelligent connected vehicle (autonomous driving) application demonstration operation guarantee fund, and promote relevant pilot areas and special scenarios to carry out mixed traffic pilot projects as soon as possible.