Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Guangzhou's local authorities recently issued a batch of notifications that allow several companies to road test autonomous vehicles, the fourth tier-1 megacity in China turning on the green light to unmanned vehicle road tests following Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. 

(Photo source: Pony.ai)

Enterprises that were given the go-ahead in the first place include Auto X, GAC Group, WeRide.ai, Pony.ai and BlueDeep Technology. Aside from GAC Group, the other three are AI startups.

Some of them have already obtained such qualification from other cities. For instance, AutoX, Pony ai. and GAC Group were given the permission to conduct self-driving car road tests by local governments of Zhaoqing, Beijing and Chongqing respectively in 2018.

By the end of April of the year 2019, there were a total of 109 licenses that had been released to companies across China for their autonomous driving road tests, according to a summary done by AutoInfo, a Chinese automotive information website.

Of that, 16 cities had got their enterprises received the licenses, among which Beijing owned the most—up to 59 pieces. The runner-up Chongqing, issuing 12 licenses in total, had attracted a number of applicants with its abundant geomorphic resources. Jiangsu Province released a total of 7 licenses—2 pieces for Wuxi, 3 pieces for Changzhou and 2 pieces for Suzhou.

What's more, a total of 35 companies were given the licenses. Baidu possessed nearly 50% of total pieces with its footprints scattering in 5 cities including Beijing (45 pieces), Pingtan (3 pieces), Chongqing (1 piece), Changsha (1 piece) and Tianjin (1 piece).

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