Daimler becomes first global automaker to get Beijing’s autonomous vehicle road test license

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- German automaker Daimler AG became the first global automaker that was given a road test license for L4 autonomous vehicles in Beijing, the company announced on July 6. From now on, Mercedes-Benz autonomous vehicles are allowed to be tested on roads in China's capital, a megacity with unique and complex urban traffic conditions.

As a global pioneer in autonomous driving domain, Daimler has already procured autonomous driving road test licenses in Germany and the U.S., and has been constantly expanding its autonomous driving businesses in China by cooperating with local partners. To gain the license, Mercedes-Benz vehicles outfitted with some technical applications from Baidu Apollo were tested at the National Pilot Zone (Beijing and Hebei) for Intelligent Mobility. Moreover, all of testing drivers are required to pass strict driving training. 

The German automaker has set a range of standards in vehicle safety in its long developing history. Especially, it has made major achievements in the Intelligent Drive assistance systems, which have endowed the Mercedes-Benz S‑Class and E‑Class sedans with cutting-edge partially autonomous driving technologies. 

Daimler has also positively strengthened its R&D in autonomous driving and vehicle safety in the world's largest auto market. Teaming up with Baidu, Daimler is dedicated to providing safer autonomous driving solutions for Chinese users by virtue of the open Apollo autonomous driving platform. In addition, the automaker and China's famous Tsinghua University jointly built the Research Center for Sustainable Transportation in 2013 that have been supporting research projects related to sustainable transportation in the China-specific road environment.