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chao news client reporter hu senming zheng xinhong

entering 2024, beijing, shenzhen, hangzhou and other places have announced that they will expand the test areas for autonomous driving. not long ago, the guangzhou municipal people's congress issued the "guangzhou intelligent connected vehicle innovation and development regulations (draft amendment draft for comments)" (hereinafter referred to as the "draft for comments"), proposing to support the use of intelligent connected vehicles in urban public transportation, taxis and other travel service scenarios.

as the test area becomes larger and larger, it can be foreseen that more intelligent connected vehicles (autonomous driving) will enter urban life in the future. what impact will it have on traffic?

self-driving cars on the road in qianhai, shenzhen. source: xinhua news agency

the mileage of autonomous driving operations is growing rapidly

place an order through the mobile phone app, and in less than 5 minutes, an unmanned self-driving online car-hailing vehicle will appear and shuttling through the bustling streets of the city... in recent months, such scenes have begun to appear in shanghai, guangzhou, shenzhen, wuhan, hangzhou and other places.

at present, there are 17 national-level intelligent connected vehicle testing zones, 7 vehicle networking pilot zones, and 16 "double-intelligence" pilot cities across the country, with more than 32,000 kilometers of test roads open and a test mileage of more than 120 million kilometers.

it is reported that usually, for an autonomous vehicle to go from road testing to commercial charging, it needs to obtain remote testing permits, remote passenger testing permits, etc. during this period, the vehicle must also meet the corresponding requirements in terms of operating mileage, vehicle emergency response, etc.

according to data from the guangzhou municipal transportation bureau, guangzhou has currently gathered 15 companies including pony.ai and weride to carry out different levels of road testing and l3 and l4 high-level testing activities such as passenger and cargo testing. a total of 933 test roads have been opened, with a one-way mileage of approximately 1,980 kilometers.

in addition to guangzhou, other cities in china are also rapidly increasing their autonomous driving test areas and operating mileage. at present, the cumulative mileage of wuhan's open test roads for intelligent connected vehicles has exceeded 3,378.73 kilometers (one-way mileage), covering an area of ​​about 3,000 square kilometers and reaching a population of over 7.7 million.

the "shanghai intelligent connected vehicle development report (2023)" shows that by the end of 2023, shanghai will achieve a total mileage of 9.633 million kilometers of autonomous driving tests, of which the autonomous driving test (functional test) mileage will be 7.437 million kilometers, an increase of 25% and 43% respectively compared with 2022; the total test time will be 1.15 million hours, of which the autonomous driving test (functional test) time will be 650,000 hours, an increase of 190% and 200% respectively compared with 2022.

guangzhou legislates to support autonomous driving in urban areas

in the view of industry experts, the key to the large-scale commercialization of autonomous driving is to accelerate the construction of relevant legal norms and industry standards systems.

jiang li, a researcher at the institute of regional development of the guangzhou academy of social sciences, said that guangzhou is the first city to introduce policies for the commercial operation of autonomous driving. the release of the "draft for comments" will provide a legal basis for autonomous driving to take to the road.

chao news reporter noticed that the "draft for comments" issued by guangzhou has for the first time clarified the definition of intelligent connected vehicles, which refers to vehicles equipped with on-board sensors, controllers, actuators and other devices, integrating communication and network technologies, capable of intelligent information exchange with the outside world, and having functions such as complex environment perception, intelligent decision-making, and collaborative control. in terms of types, there are three types: conditional autonomous driving, highly autonomous driving, and fully autonomous driving.

at the same time, the "draft for comments" also emphasizes the application of intelligent connected vehicles in service scenarios of transportation hubs such as highways, airports, and ports, and stipulates that the construction of pilot areas for mixed operation of human driving and autonomous driving should be gradually and orderly promoted in accordance with the goals of line connectivity, cluster connectivity, and regional interconnection. intelligent connected vehicle operating roads should be opened throughout the administrative area of ​​the city, and interconnection with open roads in surrounding cities should be promoted.

yang xiaoguang, director and professor of the intelligent transportation systems research center of tongji university, said that this move will further expand the demonstration operation area of ​​intelligent connected vehicles (autonomous driving) applications and lay a solid foundation for the subsequent commercial operation of autonomous driving.

zhang xiang, secretary-general of the international intelligent transportation technology association, pointed out that the popularization of autonomous driving and smart roads requires time and a phased transition, starting from the demonstration operation of autonomous driving in local areas and gradually expanding the scope, while promoting new technologies and minimizing risks.

will it cause traffic congestion?

although the promotion of autonomous driving is in full swing in various places, zhang xiang admits that autonomous driving is still in the transition stage from l2 to l3, and the l4 level claimed by some companies has not actually reached mass production level.

the 2023 guangzhou transportation development annual report points out that the vehicle turnover during peak hours on roads in the core area of ​​guangzhou is 2.88 million vehicle kilometers, and the road network saturation is 0.86, which is close to the maximum capacity. will the emergence of autonomous driving impose a burden on urban transportation?

baidu map "2023 china urban transportation report".

zhang xiang said frankly that autonomous driving will not bring a burden to urban traffic, because the ultimate form of autonomous driving will be "vehicle-road-cloud integration". at present, many places are still in the stage of single-vehicle intelligence. the future development direction is vehicle to x (v2x) mode, that is, it does not rely on single-vehicle equipment, lidar, etc., but realizes autonomous driving through smart road networking.

"at present, the proportion of smart roads may be less than 1%. autonomous driving can achieve orderly and standardized vehicle driving, which will help smooth the operation of urban traffic and reduce the probability of traffic accidents," said zhang xiang.

list of pilot cities for the application of “vehicle-road-cloud integration” for intelligent connected vehicles.

this year, the country has accelerated its support for the promotion of "vehicle-road-cloud integration" at the policy level. in april and june, the national development and reform commission, the ministry of finance, the ministry of transport and other departments issued relevant policies to support the implementation of the "vehicle-road-cloud integration" pilot. in early july, the ministry of industry and information technology and other five departments announced the first batch of pilot cities for the application of "vehicle-road-cloud integration" for intelligent connected vehicles, including beijing, shanghai, guangzhou, hangzhou and other 20 cities.

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