Guangzhou greenlights autonomous vehicles for pilot operation

Beijing (Gasgoo)- Guangzhou issued two policy papers to build a pilot system for autonomous driving mixed operations in the city. 

GAC-WeRide-OnTime Robotaxi in Guangzhou; photo credit: WeRide

The policies mean that authorized autonomous driving companies in Guangzhou’s Nansha District will be able to conduct commercialized pilot operation for Robotaxis in the district. 

According to the plan, Nansha District will deploy no more than 2,000 intelligent connected vehicles for pilot operation in four stages by 2025. The fleet will be allowed to offer autonomous mobility service alongside with traditional vehicles under a varied mixed ratio and C-V2X participation degree. 

By June 29th, Guangzhou has opened up 202 roads for road tests consisting of 789km of two-way distance. The roads cover six districts in the city, including Baiyun, Haizhu, Panyu, Huangpu, Huadu, and Nansha. The city has accumulated over 5.9 million kilometers of road test distance so far. 

Up to now, Guangzhou has granted test licenses for 11 autonomous driving entities’ 201 intelligent connected vehicles, including AutoX, Pony.ai, WeRide, Baidu Apollo, GAC Group, and DiDi’s Woya Technology. The city authorized 121 of the said testing vehicles to conduct pilot operation with passengers onboard. 25 vehicles were cleared for remote tests, while 81 vehicles were permitted for tertiary highway tests. 

Moreover, the 19 autonomous vehicle models from the 11 companies have had zero traffic incidents during road tests.