Baidu granted Beijing’s first plates to test autonomous vehicles

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- According to local media, Beijing issued its first batch of temporary plates for road tests of autonomous vehicles. Beijing Baidu Network Technology Co., Ltd., Baidu Inc's subsidiary, was given 5 temporary plates.

Reportedly, Beijing's temporary plates for autonomous vehicle tests are divided into 5 levels from T1 to T5. Baidu got 5 T3 temporary plates that are heretofore the highest level of plates being issued in China, which means the tested vehicle possess such capabilities as cognizing and obeying traffic regulations, executing the designed routes and handling emergencies, etc.

Baidu has tested its autonomous vehicles on the public roads around Yizhuang, a town in Beijing's Daxing district, after it received the temporary plates.

The autonomous vehicle applying for temporary plates should satisfy certain requirements. For instance, the vehicle should be trained over 5000 kilometers in closed testing fields and pass relevant evaluations, including the ability to comply with traffic rules and regulations, to execute driving system's instructions and switch to human operational mode under emergency conditions.

Besides, the testing driver should have more than 50 hours autonomous driving operation experience and can take over the operation at any time. The tested vehicle should install monitoring facilities and upload data when it runs on roads to ensure that the vehicle will be tested on approved time and approved sections and be monitored at any moment.

The road test for autonomous vehicles should be operated in dedicated fields. According to Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport, Beijing constructed its first closed testing fields for autonomous vehicles in Haidian District with an area of 200 mu (around 133 thousand square meters),which boasts abundant testing scenarios and multi-layered evaluation system. Meanwhile, the government has designated 33 roads with a total length of 105km as the first batch of public testing roads in Beijing Economic Technological Development Area, Shunyi District and Haidian District. All of testing roads are located outside the 5th ring road to keep away for heavy-traffic areas.