Baidu, Pony.ai greenlighted driverless road test in Beijing

Beijing (Gasgoo)- Today, autonomous driving developers Baidu and Pony.ai were granted the first batch of driverless road test permits in the newly opened autonomous driving testing zone, in Beijing's intelligent connected vehicle policy pilot zone.

The press conference; photo credit: Yizhuang District

The pilot zone is located in Yizhuang District, covering 20 square kilometers, and offers over 100 kilometers of autonomous driving testing roads. Companies are permitted to perform road tests during non-rush hours with clearly visible autonomous testing marks on the vehicle.

Notably, aside from Beijing, the Chinese autonomous driving startup, Pony.ai, was also licensed to perform unmanned road tests or operations in Guangzhou, and Californian cities, including Fremont, Irvine, and Milpitas.

Photo credit: Pony.ai

A city government official unscrambled the first normative policy document targeting intelligent connected vehicles' autonomous road test.

The policies can be divided into four parts. Firstly, testing standards must be reinforce, and companies need to ensure network and data transmitting security; synergy between remote assistance platforms and vehicles in-test are also mandated. 

Secondly, tests are required to be as comprehensive as possible in-cars and on-roads for wholly unmanned driving realization.

Thirdly, the testing process must be strictly monitored and underperformed companies will be eliminated from the testing zone.

Last but not least, the accident treatment mechanism of participating companies has to be refined explicitly for autonomous tests.