SZ mulls legislation on automated driving

SHENZHEN is expected to enact a law over internet-based automated vehicles within the year and the draft has passed the third reading by lawmakers, sources from the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress, the city’s legislature, said recently.

This would be China’s first regulation on automated or driverless vehicles.

Shenzhen, as a city of innovation and a leader in the automated vehicle industry, has opened 145 kilometers of roads for automated driving tests and issued 93 licenses, including 23 for driverless tests with passengers, sources from Shenzhen transport bureau said.

A driverless vehicle can sense its surroundings and operate without the need for human intervention. Such vehicles can be classified into five categories according to their level of competence.

Levels 1 and 2 deal with driver assistance and partial autonomous driving. This means the vehicle can run cruise control, acceleration, braking and steering by itself but a driver still needs to be present to take control as needed.

At Level 3, the vehicle can handle all important safety functions and drivers act as backup as needed.

At Level 4, the car is completely autonomous in a specific speed limit and geographical area.

At Level 5, the vehicle is fully self-contained in all cases.

The draft regulation allows driverless vehicles to be tested at levels 4 and 5 on the city’s expressways and trunk roads after approval by authorities.

At Mawan Port, 38 driverless container trucks have been put into operation and the port became China’s first 5G AI port applying automated driving and artificial intelligence technologies.

Nanshan, Futian and Pingshan districts have started driverless driving for different vehicle types such as cars, buses and logistics vehicles.

Self-driving startup DeepRoute.ai launched its robotaxi service last July by offering a fleet of 20 self-driving cabs with safety drivers for adult passengers around Futian’s central business district. DeepRoute.ai, established in 2019, got its permit to run trials last April, and it became the first company to officially run a public robotaxi program in the city.

Apollo Go, Baidu’s ride-hailing service platform, launched trial operation of its self-driving robotaxi services in the Houhai area in Nanshan last month. The launch of Baidu’s robotaxi services is set to drive further development in automated driving in Shenzhen and accelerate the development of local intelligent connected vehicles.

China has about 4,000 firms connected to the automated driving sector, about 20 percent of which are based in Shenzhen, according to Chinese corporate registration statistics on Tianyancha. (Shenzhen Daily)