Beijing expands its test area for autonomous vehicles

21 May 2019 Nitin Budhiraja

(Excerpt)

Beijing's Haidian District plans to build a 100 km² demonstration area for developing and testing autonomous and connected vehicle technology, according to China Daily, citing district government head Dai Binbin. The area will integrate multiple scenarios, cloud management, simulated tests, and data support to enable the researchers to test new technologies in commuting, logistics and delivery, and road cleaning.

Significance: The Chinese government is strongly supporting autonomous and connected vehicle technology as it begins to fast-track the sector in the country and the Beijing seems to be leading these efforts. In September last year, Beijing city authorities named 11 roads where self-driving vehicles will be tested to push the development of technology, in addition to the 33 roads opened in March. This is in line with the regulations announced in April 2018 by China's ministries of industry and information technology, public security, and transport. These regulations allow local government authorities to arrange road tests of intelligent connected vehicles (ICVs). In December 2017, the municipal government of Beijing was the first to implement policies for self-driving vehicles on the city's roads, to be followed by Shanghai.