FROM making test runs on closed roads to carrying passengers in cities, China’s self-driving industry moved forward a big step last year, attracting more foreign car manufacturers to share the cake together.

The guidance and support from the Chinese Government to its self-driving industry has promoted the rapid development of this industry, said Gao Qianqian, an official from China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Self-driving cars have to maintain a stable connection with base stations to monitor their operation status, which requires a large data exchange volume. With the 5G network, the delay is cut down to only a few tens of milliseconds, said Han Xu, CEO of China’s smart mobility company WeRide.

As the basis for autonomous driving, China’s 5G technology, with the advantages of large bandwidth, ultra-low delay and large-scale connection, has accelerated its development last year.

A self-driving vehicle running at 100 kph starts braking at least 1.4 meters after recognizing obstacles in 4G networks, while the 5G network can shorten the distance to around 3 centimeters.

The support of the upgraded network has facilitated the autonomous vehicles shifting from road tests to passenger-carrying tests.

In November 2019, a fleet of driverless vehicles equipped with Baidu Apollo autonomous driving systems developed by Chinese tech giant Baidu carrying passengers ran on the test roads with a total length of up to 114 kilometers and completed cruising, changing lanes and other diverse scenarios on the roads.

At the end of last year, WeRide launched a trial run of autonomous taxis, named Robotaxi, in a 144-square-kilometer area in Guangzhou City. (Xinhua)