Six Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, have so far expanded areas for conducting test runs of self-driving vehicles on open roads.

Vehicles carry out test at a comprehensive test demonstration area for intelligent connected vehicles in Shanghai. (Photo/Xinhua)

Three major companies with a fleet of at least 30 self-driving vehicles have been carrying out passenger-carrying tests, including Apollo under Chinese tech giant Baidu, China’s smart mobility company WeRide and self-driving startup Pony.ai.

On Aug.24, the Guangzhou Municipal Transportation Bureau in south China’s Guangdong province said the department had issued 55 notices for test runs of intelligent connected vehicles on 67 roads with a total length of 135 kilometers.

Previously, Changchun in northeast China’s Jilin province had opened roads near the Changchun Automobile Economic and Technological Development Zone for tests of intelligent connected vehicles.

Intelligent connected vehicles will be the focus of competition in the future, said Chen Qingtai, president of the China EV100 Forum, at the recent GIV2020 held in Guangzhou.

According to Chen, intelligent connected electric vehicles will be the leading core products in the energy revolution, information revolution, transportation revolution and the building of smart cities in the future.

Rapid upgrading of technologies such as the L5-class autonomous driving technologies will provide more application scenarios for intelligent connected vehicles and accelerate their implementation.

According to Feng Xingya, general manager of GAC Group, the cooperative vehicle infrastructure system model for smart cars is the solution that is appropriate for the Chinese market. China’s huge market, innovation in online business models, and unique advantages in 5G networks, artificial intelligence, and software talents will lead to a distinctive range of new smart cars.