A vehicle safety inspector sits in a self­driving Robotaxi in Changsha, Hunan province, during road trials on April 22, 2020. Baidu is conducting full­fledged trials of its self­driving taxi service Apollo Robotaxi in Changsha. (YANG HUAFENG / CHINA NEWS SERVICE)

Chinese technology companies are stepping up efforts to start passenger trials on unmanned vehicles, facilitate the development of vehicle-to-everything or V2X infrastructure and promote the application of 5G, in an attempt to bolster the large-scale commercial use of self-driving technologies.

Autonomous driving not only solves traffic safety problems, but also greatly improves the efficiency of transportation, brings about economic benefits and liberates people from repetitive driving.

Jiang Zheng, self-driving expert at China's GAC R&D Center

The smart transportation sector is expected to witness explosive growth as the nation is speeding up the construction of new infrastructure, such as 5G networks and data centers, which also creates new opportunities for the commercialization of autonomous driving technology, said Li Zhenyu, corporate vice-president of Baidu Inc and general manager of its intelligent driving group.

"We are currently working with local governments in more than 10 Chinese cities, including Changsha in Hunan province, Baoding and Cangzhou in Hebei province, Chongqing, and Yangquan in Shanxi province, to promote smart transportation infrastructure," Li said.

The company has accelerated steps to commercialize self-driving technology. In April, Baidu fully opened its self-driving taxi service Apollo Robotaxi in Changsha, Hunan province. Robotaxi provides free rides to passengers across an area of 130 sq km, with its routes including multiple urban scenarios, such as residential areas, commercial zones and industrial parks.

"China is taking the lead in the autonomous driving sector around the world," Li said, adding that Baidu has also carried out passenger-carrying self-driving taxi road tests in Beijing and Cangzhou, Hebei province.

China will inject more funds into transportation infrastructure and push forward the development of self-driving technology to build national strength in transportation, according to the Ministry of Transport.

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Baidu has already completed construction of the world's largest autonomous driving test base named Apollo Park in Beijing.

Located in Beijing's Yizhuang Economic Development Zone, the 13,500-square-meter Apollo Park supports five key testing areas. They are vehicle and accessories storage, long-range big data cloud control, command operations, maintenance, and research and development. At present, over 200 autonomous vehicles have been deployed in Apollo Park.

Baidu started developing self-driving technologies in 2013, and secured 40 licenses to test self-driving vehicles carrying passengers on designated roads in Beijing on Dec 30, 2019. So far, the company has obtained 120 such licenses and conducted road tests in 24 cities around the world.

"Autonomous driving is definitely the future development direction of the automobile industry. It not only solves traffic safety problems, but also greatly improves the efficiency of transportation, brings about economic benefits and liberates people from repetitive driving," said Jiang Zheng, a self-driving expert at China's GAC R&D Center.

The launch of self-driving taxi services in some designated areas might be the best application scenario for the technologies due to high operating costs of private vehicles, Jiang said, while noting some countries are trying to promote implementation of relevant policies and regulations related to self-driving technology.

In addition to advancing autonomous driving technology, it is important to develop sophisticated communication capabilities between vehicles and their environment.

Baidu has rolled out an open platform for its V2X solution, which will create synergetic interactions between smart cars and intelligent roadways to improve safety and mitigate traffic congestion

"Along with the continuous intelligence development of an individual autonomous vehicle, V2X will reduce the high cost of autonomous vehicles and provide more guaranteed safety through redundancy," said Li, emphasizing the company will continue to invest in the vehicle-road coordination technology.

Over the past few months, Baidu has won bids to build V2X pilot zones in Chongqing's Yongchuan district, Shanxi province's Yangquan city, and Anhui province's Hefei city. A V2X pilot zone within 20 square kilometers of Yongchuan district in Chongqing is testing L4 or Level 4 autonomous vehicles, which can drive almost all the time without human control.

Officials have high hopes for the market as the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and another nine ministries released a blueprint related to the smart vehicle strategy in February.

According to the blueprint, China is planning to realize the scale production of vehicles capable of conditional autonomous driving and commercialization of highly autonomous vehicles in certain circumstances by 2025.

To date, road tests for self-driving vehicles are available in more than 20 provinces and cities in China, and six cities－Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Changsha, Wuhan and Cangzhou－have allowed passenger-carrying tests on autonomous vehicles.

Other self-driving enterprises are ramping up efforts to push the industrial application of such cutting-edge technology. In November, China's smart mobility company WeRide launched a trial run of autonomous taxis in a 145-square-kilometer area of Guangzhou, Guangdong province. Passengers can order taxis via its app and experience a driverless journey.

Han Xu, founder and CEO of WeRide, said the company aims to launch over 100 self-driving taxis in Guangzhou this year, gain regulatory approval to remove backup drivers in designated regions in 2021 and finally achieve complete driverless operations in most areas of Guangzhou in 2023.

Despite the challenges brought by the COVID-19 outbreak, tech startup Pony.ai announced in February that it got new funding of $462 million, including $400 million of strategic investment from Japanese automaker Toyota, pushing the startup's valuation to more than $3 billion.

Since its establishment in 2016, Pony.ai has been a pioneer in autonomous mobility technologies and services across the United States and China. In November 2019, it became the first company to roll out a public-facing Robotaxi pilot service in California, demonstrating its ambition and commitment to mobility services on a global scale.

Peng Jun, co-founder and chief executive officer of Pony.ai, said the self-driving industry will usher in unprecedented opportunities underpinned by the new infrastructure, and boost the transformation and upgrading of Chinese economy.

"Autonomous driving is still in an initial stage. It will become a pivotal part of smart transportation and drive the construction of smart cities, with a far-reaching impact, such as improving the overall economy and changing the way people travel," Peng said.

As the basis for autonomous driving, the superfast 5G technology, with the advantages of large bandwidth, ultralow delay and large-scale connection, has accelerated its development.

The 5G self-driving minibus developed by self-driving startup BroadXT Inc made its global debut in October 2019 in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province.

Powered by a variety of advanced techniques such as sensors, high-precision positioning, the fifth-generation wireless network and V2X cooperative vehicle infrastructure system, the autonomous bus adopts an L4 autopilot technology and is able to identify pedestrians, vehicles and other obstacles within 200 meters.

The autonomous bus can react within 100 milliseconds under complex road conditions owing to the 5G, sensors, AI and cutting-edge computing technologies, said Shang Wenzhu, president of BroadXT.

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Consultancy Roland Berger said China is accelerating its development of autonomous driving and is expected to become a leader in the sector, which is seen as key to the future of the automotive industry.

"Intelligent vehicles with fully autonomous functions may account for 10 percent of the new vehicles this year and self-driving vehicles will likely be part of our daily lives in 2030," said Yang Diange, dean of the Automobile Engineering Department at Tsinghua University.

Some experts have warned that firms should proceed cautiously, especially when it comes to people's safety.

"More tests are still needed before such vehicles can reach mass production and enter large-scale commercial application because of widespread safety concerns," said Zeng Zhiling, managing director of LMC Automotive Consulting Co.

Since these vehicles are highly intelligent and networked, there is a possibility that hackers could break into the system and pose a great danger to road safety, said Zeng.