Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou compete to become the "capital of autonomous driving", who will win in the end?

The capital's policies take the lead, and companies such as Pony.ai and Baidu are promoting testing, and Shanghai and Guangzhou are unwilling to lag behind.

Autonomous driving is ushering in a wave of policy dividends.

On July 27, Beijing's Intelligent Connected Vehicle Policy Pilot Zone (hereinafter referred to as the "Pilot Zone") announced that it would officially open high-speed autonomous driving scenarios, allowing the first batch of companies that obtained highway testing notices to carry out pilot tests.

Soon, the first batch of autonomous driving test vehicles will be welcomed on the 10-kilometer bidirectional section of the Beijing-Taipei Expressway (Fifth Ring Road-Sixth Ring Road) in Beijing.

Pony.ai and Baidu became the first companies to receive the notice for testing passenger cars on highways in the policy pilot zone, while Pony.ai, Mainline Technology-JD.com consortium, and Mainline Technology-BAIC Foton-Fuyou consortium obtained the notice for testing commercial vehicles on highways.

"After obtaining the license, Pony.ai will conduct high-speed tests in stages and in strict accordance with government regulations and requirements, while ensuring safety. We are currently waiting for further notification from the government," Pony.ai told Travel.com (ID: carcaijing).

"Baidu Apollo's autonomous driving road tests will extend from complex urban road scenarios to high-speed scenarios. In the future, Baidu Apollo's autonomous driving will start commercial exploration in more scenarios." Baidu Apollo told Chuxingyike (ID: carcaijing).

Yan Jinghui, an expert from the Expert Committee of the China Automobile Dealers Association, told Chuxingyike (ID: carcaijing), "Highway testing has added new scenarios, providing an opportunity for the practice of autonomous driving intelligence."

In addition to Beijing, cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou have successively opened autonomous driving test scenarios, and first- and second-tier cities are competing to make autonomous driving "run" locally.

Baidu and Pony.ai can’t wait

Although highway testing has not yet begun, companies that have obtained testing qualifications have already made preparations.

Pony.ai told Chuxingyike (ID: carcaijing) that the company had already prepared vehicles and supporting equipment for high-speed testing in accordance with management regulations. "Pony.ai was deeply involved in the preliminary work related to the high-speed autonomous driving test in the Beijing High-level Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone, conducted sufficient technical training and testing in the high-speed test scenario in the highway test field of the Ministry of Transport, and passed the technical review organized by the demonstration zone."

▲ Source: IC

Baidu Apollo has already accumulated certain technical experience in highway scenarios and has also conducted a large number of tests in simulations before passing relevant assessments and certifications to obtain compliance qualifications. "Carrying out compliant and orderly tests in scenarios with higher speeds and greater accident impacts such as highways can help further improve autonomous driving technology in related scenarios and accelerate the implementation of operational scenarios."

In the development of autonomous driving technology, road testing is a crucial link, and highways, as a scene that cannot be avoided by autonomous driving, are naturally a battleground for autonomous driving companies.

Yin Chengliang, executive deputy director of the Intelligent Connected Electric Vehicle Innovation Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said that the development of autonomous driving technology is inseparable from road testing, and the operating conditions on highways are very different from those on urban roads, so testing is necessary to verify the relevant technology.

Baidu Apollo told Chuxingyike (ID: carcaijing) that Baidu Apollo has been testing on highways for several years and the technology is now at a very mature stage. "Highways are a very important testing scenario for autonomous driving. If they can be opened legally and compliantly, it will accelerate the research and development of autonomous driving in more scenarios."

"Obtaining a highway test permit will greatly enrich our testing scenarios. Vehicles on highways travel faster, and conducting road tests on highways can effectively verify the stability and reliability of our autonomous driving technology in high-speed driving conditions," said Pony.ai.

Policies and regulations need to be improved

"Opening highways as test roads for autonomous driving marks another step forward in the development of intelligent vehicles, and also indicates that the whole society has provided all-round support for electrification, intelligence and networking," said Yan Jinghui. "Autonomous driving intelligence has achieved good results in a certain period of time. All parties have given confidence and support. Manufacturers and capital have continued to develop and invest, so that autonomous driving can adapt to technical and safety requirements in various scenarios."

Highway testing is a more rigorous test of the safety of autonomous driving than general road testing, so Beijing has also implemented a number of measures to ensure the safety of the test. According to the travel website carcaijing, the pilot zone has put forward a number of regulations for the highway test, including supervision, safety assurance, insurance, and technical specifications.

Kong Lei, deputy director of the Management Committee of Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, said that the policy pilot zone requires that vehicles applying for road tests be equipped with OBU devices that have communication and data transmission functions with the RSU on the test road, and connect supervision data and real-time data to the demonstration zone cloud control platform to achieve vehicle-road collaboration and safety supervision, and timely push road safety information to vehicles to ensure the safety of autonomous driving tests on highways and urban expressways.

RSU is the abbreviation of Road Side Unit, which corresponds to OBU (On Board Unit). The two exchange information through microwave communication to achieve functions such as vehicle identity recognition.

The autonomous driving cargo demonstration will be reviewed and managed in stages. For the commercial vehicle autonomous driving cargo demonstration, it is necessary to go through three test stages: empty vehicle, half-loaded vehicle cargo not exceeding 30 tons, and full-load simulation test. Only after passing the review can the cargo demonstration application be carried out. "Only after the specified mileage test can we apply for testing in special time periods and special weather scenarios, and provide various autonomous driving test application scenarios for enterprises step by step." Kong Lei said.

To ensure the safety of the test process, the pilot zone requires that the test vehicles be equipped with front and rear accompanying vehicles in three stages, and each stage must pass the review before the accompanying vehicles can be removed. At the same time, vehicles can only be tested in designated lanes on open roads, and various signs will be set up on the test roads to warn social vehicles that are mixed in. Self-driving vehicle testing at high speeds will also avoid morning and evening rush hours and extreme weather.

The management regulations received by the enterprises also include requirements for insurance protection mechanisms. For commercial vehicles, each vehicle must purchase traffic accident liability insurance of no less than RMB 10 million and submit proof of the compensation ability of the test subject.

A legal expert told Chuxingyike (ID: carcaijing) that the current focus of innovation in autonomous driving regulations is to clarify the identification of rights and responsibilities and improve the relevant insurance system.

Yan Jinghui told Chuxingyike (ID: carcaijing) that highway conditions are more complicated than those of ordinary urban roads, and the technical requirements for vehicles are higher, and ensuring personal safety is the top priority. "In the next step, various departments will also be involved in the research, design and gradual implementation of policies, regulations, and transportation facilities."

Fan Xiao, director of the strategic planning department of the Shanghai Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Center, reminded that the policy opening is undoubtedly an important benefit to the autonomous driving industry, but the balance between policy and technology also needs to be carefully considered. "When the technology is not fully mature, if it is fully opened or operated, if a safety accident occurs, it will cause huge losses to the lives and property safety of ordinary people. The government needs to be cautious, because if something goes wrong, it will not only affect one company, but will cause the entire industry to stagnate or even regress historically."

First-tier cities step up their deployment

"As the capital, Beijing is very cautious in issuing any policies on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is exemplary. The problems Beijing has encountered will also be encountered by some super-large cities in the next step. Other cities should also learn from Beijing's progress and development," said Yan Jinghui.

Based on Beijing's high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone, the pilot zone was officially established on April 13 this year. It is the first pilot zone in China with management policy innovation as its core. It applies to 6 sections including the 225 square kilometers of Yizhuang New Town, Beijing Daxing International Airport, and Beijing section of Beijing-Taipei Expressway. The sections open for highway testing this time include the Beijing section of Beijing-Tianjin Expressway, Beijing section of Beijing-Taipei Expressway, Daxing Airport Expressway, South Fifth Ring Road connecting section (Daxing Airport Expressway-Beijing-Tianjin Expressway), South Sixth Ring Road connecting section (Daxing Airport Expressway-Beijing-Tianjin Expressway) and Daxing Airport North Line Expressway.