China Accelerates Autonomous Driving, Approves Limited Road Access For Advanced Vehicles

The world’s largest auto market, China, will allow access to roads for intelligent connected vehicles in limited areas for select chosen players.

What Happened: According to a statement posted on China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology website, select vehicles with autonomous driving functions qualified for mass production will be allowed to pilot on roads. However, this applies only to vehicles with level 3 or 4 driving automation. While level 3 refers to conditional automatic driving, level 4 refers to highly automatic driving in China’s five categories of autonomous driving.

During the pilot period, if the vehicle does not perform safely, the ministry warned in the notice that the pilot would be suspended.

Why It Matters: It was reported that China is investing heavily in upgrading its highway system to make it compatible with autonomous driving. In 2022, the country allocated 1.6 trillion yuan to highway upgrades, marking a 7.3% increase from the previous year. The infrastructure for autonomous driving encompasses centralized cloud control platforms, traffic sensors, communication and positioning equipment, roadside computing, power supplies, and network security facilities.

The country has already approved Baidu Inc‘s BIDU robotaxi fleets in designated areas in cities like Wuhan, Chongqing, and even the capital city of Beijing.

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