China’s Ministry of Transport today released a document to promote the development and application of autonomous driving technology and to provide regulatory-level guidance for industry development.
The document says China aims to make positive progress in basic theoretical research on autonomous driving by 2025 and make important breakthroughs in the development and testing of key technologies and products such as road infrastructure intelligence and vehicle-road coordination.
By then China will have introduced a number of fundamental and critical standards in autonomous driving, built a number of national autonomous driving test bases and pioneering application demonstration projects, and realized large-scale applications in some scenarios, the document mentions.
To achieve these goals, China’s main tasks in intelligent driving will include strengthening research and development of autonomous driving technology, improving the intelligence level of road infrastructure, promoting pilot and demonstration applications of autonomous driving technology, and improving the support system to adapt to autonomous driving.
In terms of specific details, China will encourage research on the traffic characteristics and impact mechanisms in the case of mixed autonomous driving and manual driving and support the establishment of a reliable and efficient operation monitoring system.
China will carry out demonstration applications of autonomous driving for cargo and expand them to scenarios such as road freight and urban distribution under the premise of good risk assessment and emergency planning.
China will also support the exploration of demonstration applications for self-driving public transport commuting in areas such as closed bus rapid transit systems and industrial parks, and extend to other passenger transport scenarios according to technical evolution and demonstration progress, the document said.
