ON Aug. 8, driverless robotaxi services were launched in designated areas in the Chinese cities of Wuhan and Chongqing, marking a significant step in the country’s exploration of the commercialization of autonomous driving.

Thanks to continuous technological innovation and policy support, China has made steady strides in autonomous driving, from running trials in semi-closed areas to venturing the technology on open roads. The market potential of this technology also continues to grow in the country.

Fast lane

Chinese tech giant Baidu is the only company that has obtained the permit to offer driverless robotaxi services on open roads in Wuhan and Chongqing. The service is provided on Baidu’s autonomous driving platform Apollo Go.

“We have adopted multiple measures to ensure passengers’ safety, such as single vehicle intelligence, monitoring redundancy, and parallel driving,” said Xu Baoqiang, general manager of Baidu’s autonomous driving vehicle department.

Before the launch in Wuhan and Chongqing, Apollo Go had provided autonomous driving services in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, with more than 1 million orders and the total testing mileage exceeding 32 million kilometers.

Like Baidu, many autonomous driving companies in China have been striving to advance the technology and accelerate its commercialization.

WeRide, headquartered in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, specializes in applying autonomous driving to intelligent transportation, freight and sanitation. Its driverless sanitation vehicle, Robosweeper, has been tested on open roads in Guangzhou’s Nansha District since May.

Shenzhen-based DeepRoute.ai aims to make autonomous driving less costly. It has cut down the cost of Level-4 autonomous driving solutions to less than US$10,000 and applied it in its robotaxi fleet and medium-duty trucks, according to Zhou Guang, founder of DeepRoute.ai.

“The technology has been well-received among automakers, and we’re working closely with them to integrate our system into consumer vehicles so that truly affordable Level-4 vehicles will sooner be a reality,” said Zhou.

Tailwinds

The Chinese government has provided considerable policy support for the development of autonomous driving.

In February 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission and other government departments jointly issued a guideline to promote the innovation and development of intelligent vehicles. Authorities in several major Chinese cities soon followed suit.

As a pioneer of China’s reform and opening-up, Guangdong Province has long been an avid promoter of entrepreneurship and innovative ideas. In 2019, the provincial capital Guangzhou took the lead in the country in permitting road tests for autonomous driving. Now, the city’s self-driving mileage has reached 2.55 million kilometers.

Shenzhen on Aug. 1 started allowing fully autonomous vehicles to run on certain roads as a local regulation on smart and internet-connected vehicles went into effect.

It stipulates that fully autonomous automobiles without drivers can run on roads in areas designated by the local traffic management department.

The regulation also sets rules for liability in car accidents that involve autonomous vehicles with or without drivers.

On the day the regulation took effect, DeepRoute.ai conducted road testing in downtown Shenzhen, with a driverless car of the company finishing a trip of 9.6 km in about half an hour.

Policymakers have created a favorable environment for road tests and public-serving operations, laying the foundation for accumulating mileage and corner cases to validate and continuously improve Level-4 algorithms, said Zhou.

Besides supportive policies, the complicated traffic conditions in China also bring opportunities for autonomous driving companies to improve their technologies and optimize their products and services.

For Chinese autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai, the company’s systems need to cope with complex scenarios on Guangzhou’s roads, shared by electric scooters, bicycles and couriers. It’s challenging to ensure the safe operation of its intelligent vehicles.

“The complex scenarios can create more valuable data, which can help with our technology upgrading,” said Mo Luyi, vice president of Pony.ai.

China’s booming automaking industry also provides a solid foundation for developing autonomous vehicles. As a major auto production base in China, Guangzhou made 2.95 million cars in 2020.

Many autonomous vehicle enterprises have settled in the city. The gathering of production lines, parts suppliers and start-ups has facilitated these companies to source cutting-edge components in Guangzhou.

Commercialization

Chinese companies are endeavoring to expand the scope and scale of road tests and operations regularly to provide fully autonomous driving services. They also want to adapt to complex scenarios with advanced technologies.

Pony.ai, for instance, takes advantage of its multi-sensor system that encompasses laser radar, millimeter-wave radar and a high-definition camera to ensure redundant monitoring for safety.

“So far, our autonomous driving vehicles have recorded no active driving accidents in 13 million km of open road travel,” said Mo.

Many autonomous driving enterprises in China, with upstream and downstream partners, are promoting the building of an industrial chain to accelerate mass production.

They also aim to gradually launch a larger number of autonomous driving vehicles on the roads, educate the public on the technology so as to improve their acceptance, and help autonomous driving play a greater role in our daily life.

Pony.ai has created strategic cooperation with On Time, a travel platform under Guangzhou Automobile Group, to deploy more robotaxis on the streets and gradually build the public’s trust in autonomous driving.

DeepRoute.ai has partnered with Deppon Logistics Co., Ltd. to equip trucks with Level-4 autonomous driving technology to improve their capacity and efficiency.

“Intelligent connected vehicles are highly encouraged on the national and local level. We can expect more cities to open up public roads for autonomous driving companies to test and operate their vehicles,” said Zhou.

(Xinhua)