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

The "Overall Implementation Plan for Beijing's Intelligent Connected Vehicle Policy Pilot Zone" shows that the pilot zone has four special policies, including allowing unmanned delivery vehicles to obtain road rights and operate on the road, opening up high-speed testing of autonomous driving vehicles, supporting the mutual recognition of test results of intelligent connected vehicles in different locations, and allowing unmanned delivery vehicles to obtain road rights and operate on the road.

When the pilot zone was established, Pony.ai, Baidu and Didi obtained the first batch of 30 autonomous driving road test licenses. By May 25, unmanned delivery vehicles, one of the four special policies, were put into operation on the road. JD.com, Meituan and Neolix obtained the first batch of unmanned delivery vehicle body codes in China, and deployed nearly 100 unmanned delivery vehicles in delivery stations, residential areas, scenic spots and industrial parks.

Kong Lei said that Beijing's high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone has entered the 2.0 construction stage. "The next step will focus on implementing the five major projects of 'strengthening the cloud, expanding roads, building networks, connecting vehicles, and deploying maps' to provide autonomous driving companies with a larger area and more scenarios for testing and demonstration space, and continue to promote the deep integration of intelligent connected vehicles and smart city infrastructure."

"Policies are a very important factor affecting the automotive industry. Beijing can be said to have seized the initiative in market competition this time. Under the premise of intelligence, policy advancement is of great significance to boosting the regional economy." Yan Jinghui believes that autonomous driving involves transportation facilities and urban planning. If no further research is done, it will be difficult for urban construction to adapt to the development of intelligence.

At the same time, autonomous driving pilot projects are also being promoted in Guangzhou and Shanghai, with each open scenario having its own focus.

On July 30, Guangzhou City cooperated with Hycan and Yuanzhi Technology to promote the implementation of vehicle-road collaboration in multiple application scenarios such as highways and smart parks. It plans to carry out autonomous driving demonstration tests on highway sections such as Baiyun Airport-Pazhou and Pazhou-Nansha, and then cover cross-city highways such as "Guangzhou-Shenzhen" and "Guangzhou-Huizhou".

Previously, Guangzhou City issued two documents, namely "Opinions on Gradually Piloting Demonstration Operation Policies for Intelligent Connected Vehicle (Autonomous Driving) Applications in Different Mixed Traffic Environments" and "Work Plan for Demonstration Operations of Intelligent Connected Vehicle (Autonomous Driving) Applications in Different Mixed Traffic Environments". Mixed traffic pilot projects will be carried out in Nansha District, Huangpu District and other Guangzhou intelligent connected vehicle road test pilot areas.

On February 25 this year, Shanghai also released the "Shanghai Implementation Plan to Accelerate the Development of New Energy Vehicle Industry (2021-2025)" to explore testing in different types and risk levels of areas such as urban expressways, highways, and parking lots.

As of July 2021, the total test mileage of intelligent connected vehicles in Shanghai has exceeded 1.9 million kilometers, the cumulative safety test mileage of autonomous driving in Guangzhou has reached 2.55 million kilometers, and the cumulative safety test mileage of autonomous driving in Beijing has exceeded 2.68 million kilometers.

Yan Jinghui believes: "It is hard to predict whether other cities will open high-speed tests this year, but first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen should learn from each other. This is a gesture and also a social responsibility of the city."