An autonomous-driving bus hits the road in Chongqing, on Sept 16, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua)

A medium-sized bus equipped with autonomous driving technologies made its debut Thursday in Chongqing municipality, a vehicle-manufacturing powerhouse in southwestern China.

The L4 autonomous bus was a joint effort of Baidu Apollo and domestic bus manufacturer King Long. Apollo, an open platform launched by Chinese tech giant Baidu in 2017, aims at coordinating cross-sector efforts in autonomous driving.

At the same time, Baidu obtained 10 license plates to allow road tests for self-driving vehicles with passengers issued by the municipal government.

After one-year construction, a test base for autonomous driving was put into use on Thursday in Chongqing. Several carmakers have carried out L4 self-driving tests and demonstrations in five application scenarios.

Baidu Apollo will work together with Chongqing to set a benchmark for the self-driving industry in west China, and provide R&D test services and rich application scenarios for carmakers and auto parts manufacturers in the autonomous vehicle field, said Li Zhenyu, vice president of Baidu.