(Excerpt)
Beijing's Haidian District plans to build a 100 km2
demonstration area for developing and testing autonomous and
connected vehicle technology, according to China Daily,
citing district government head Dai Binbin. The area will integrate
multiple scenarios, cloud management, simulated tests, and data
support to enable the researchers to test new technologies in
commuting, logistics and delivery, and road cleaning.
Significance: The Chinese government is
strongly supporting autonomous and connected vehicle technology as
it begins to fast-track the sector in the country and the Beijing
seems to be leading these efforts. In September last year, Beijing
city authorities named 11 roads where self-driving vehicles will be
tested to push the development of technology, in addition to the 33
roads opened in March. This is in line with the regulations
announced in April 2018 by China's ministries of industry and
information technology, public security, and transport. These
regulations allow local government authorities to arrange road
tests of intelligent connected vehicles (ICVs). In December 2017,
the municipal government of Beijing was the first to implement
policies for self-driving vehicles on the city's roads, to be
followed by Shanghai.
