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Although the technology and model of Robotaxi (self-driving taxi) have been developed for many years, the lack of sufficient legislation to support the perfect operation of the industry has always been a hot topic. Major cities in China are trying to speed up the completion of this puzzle.

Recently, the official website of the Guangzhou Municipal People's Congress released the "Guangzhou Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation and Development Regulations (Draft Amendment Draft for Comments)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Draft"), proposing a plan for a second review in August. The draft regulates and promotes the implementation of intelligent connected vehicles from multiple dimensions, including industrial development, infrastructure construction, innovative applications, safety assurance, and legal responsibilities.

A reporter from 21st Century Business Herald found that since the beginning of this year, Guangzhou's industrial collaboration and policy formulation in the deployment of intelligent connected networks have been accelerating.

In terms of implementation, as of July 15 this year, Guangzhou has successively announced seven batches of intelligent connected vehicle test roads, covering several major urban areas. Data from the Guangzhou Intelligent Connected Vehicle Demonstration Zone Operation Center shows that Guangzhou has opened a total of 578 general test roads, with a total one-way mileage of 1,068.922 kilometers; and a total of 2 high-speed test roads, with a total one-way mileage of 104.913 kilometers.

Currently, Luobo Kuaipao has started Robotaxi operations in Huangpu District, and Ruqi Travel has started Robotaxi operations in Nansha District, both of which have adopted the safety officer solution; they are also exploring various demonstration operation methods.

Zhang Ruirui, director of CIC Consulting, analyzed to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that the key policy directions for promoting the implementation of autonomous driving are mainly concentrated in two aspects: one is to ensure the technical access and legal road access of intelligent networked vehicles, and the other is to establish and improve the commercial operation norms of autonomous driving vehicles. These policies provide a clear legal framework and regulatory support for the technical development, testing and verification, and commercial application of autonomous driving, paving the way for the large-scale commercial use of autonomous driving.

Image source: IC photo

Deployment Acceleration

In recent months, Guangzhou has been promoting supportive measures for the commercial operation of intelligent connected vehicles from the city level to the major administrative regions.

In May this year, the "Notice of the General Office of the People's Government of Guangdong Province on Several Measures for Empowering Thousands of Industries with Artificial Intelligence" mentioned the creation of intelligent networked vehicle terminals that integrate functions such as safe travel, smart life, and mobile office. Develop intelligent networked terminals such as unmanned taxis, smart buses, and smart heavy trucks, and encourage the application of intelligent, one-stop transportation services.

At the same time, it also emphasizes the promotion of the "vehicle-road-cloud integration" application of intelligent connected vehicles, the construction of digital and intelligent infrastructure, city-level service management platforms, and the exploration of safe applications of high-precision maps.

The "2024 Guangzhou Smart City Infrastructure and Intelligent Connected Vehicle Collaborative Development White Paper" released by the Office of the Joint Conference on the Pilot Work of New Urban Infrastructure Construction in Guangzhou in July shows that Guangzhou currently has five "double-intelligence" (collaborative development of smart city infrastructure and intelligent connected vehicles) demonstration projects, distributed in Huadu, Huangpu, Haizhu, Panyu and Nansha districts.

In the "2024 China Internet of Vehicles Industry Report and Top Ten Bases" released by the Internet of Things Industry Research Center of CCID Consulting in early July, Guangzhou Panyu District ranked third in the top ten bases with comprehensive competitiveness in the Internet of Vehicles in 2024.

According to CCID Consulting, Guangzhou has three characteristics in terms of the current status of industrial development in key cities in China: formulating comprehensive safety measures, including data supervision, setting up a fund guarantee system to improve the advance payment mechanism; organizing the development of key core technologies, such as digital cockpit steward technology, high-voltage lithium-ion battery electrolytes and new lithium salt industrialization technology research; actively exploring intelligent network commercial operation models, including vehicle access standards, demonstration operation qualifications, data security requirements, etc. This provides policy guarantees for intelligent networked vehicle companies to carry out application demonstration operations.

The aforementioned draft opinions cover the highly-concerned aspects of laws and regulations and system assurance, including deployment from multiple aspects such as "vehicle-road-cloud integration" construction, safety assurance, and legal liability.

In particular, the chapter on legal liability has been improved from multiple dimensions, including the handling of traffic violations, division of accident responsibility and compensation, and legal liability of government departments and their staff, so as to assign possible liability issues to specific entities.

In terms of safety assurance, we will advance from the dimensions of driving safety, traffic safety, network and data emergency management, data information collection and storage requirements, product quality and safety, insurance services, and security funds to ensure sufficient insurance products and other safeguards.

Industry collaboration

At present, in terms of the implementation of autonomous driving technologies such as Robotaxi, the industry is exploring two development routes, namely vehicle + operation integration or separation. The integrated model is like Baidu, and the separation model is like overseas giant Waymo and domestic companies such as Qi Travel.

Regardless of the model, a complete industrial chain match and infrastructure guarantee are the prerequisites for operation. This is also the reason why the "Notice on Carrying out Pilot Work on the Application of "Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration" for Intelligent Connected Vehicles" issued by five departments has attracted much attention.

Strengthening the coordinated development of the industrial chain also appears in the aforementioned draft opinion, and is promoted from multiple dimensions, including core technology research, intellectual property protection, industrial agglomeration, standard setting, and "vehicle-road-cloud integration" construction.

Before the draft opinion was put forward, Guangzhou had already been exploring the commercialization of autonomous driving in various scenarios.

In October 2022, Ruqi Mobility launched the commercial hybrid operation of manned online car-hailing and Robotaxi services in Guangzhou.

In addition to Robotaxi, according to the draft opinion, Guangzhou is also accelerating the implementation of urban public transportation, logistics distribution, sanitation and cleaning and other dimensions.

In general, Zhang Ruirui pointed out to reporters that the large-scale implementation of autonomous driving in China needs to cross several key thresholds: first, laws and regulations need to clarify the responsibility and technical standards of autonomous driving; second, the technology itself must prove its safety and reliability in various traffic environments; third, intelligent infrastructure such as 5G networks and roadside equipment need to be widely covered to support vehicle-road collaboration; in addition, the public's trust and acceptance of autonomous driving needs to be improved through education and positive experience; at the same time, the industry urgently needs to explore a viable business model to achieve profitability; finally, data security and privacy protection measures must be strengthened to protect user rights. Only when these conditions are met can autonomous driving services such as Robotaxi break through restrictions and achieve large-scale commercial applications.