Beijing E-Town and the efforts for autonomous driving

Translated by Irene Cecchi

The Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (BDA), established in 1992 as a national-level economic and technological development zone to pilot reforms and openness in various sectors, has been a testing ground for automated vehicles since 2020. In September of that year, the first high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone was launched –a designated area where companies with specific licenses could test and improve their products.

In Beijing E-Town, another name for the BDA, it’s therefore not surprising to see driverless cars or buses on the streets. A good example is the robotaxis by Pony.ai. Founded by James Peng and Tiancheng Lou in 2016 in Silicon Valley, Pony.ai received permission in 2017 to start testing its vehicles in Beijing. Since then, the company has accumulated over 30 million kilometers of autonomous driving, helping it become one of the leading players in the autonomous mobility sector through this extensive experience. This has enabled Pony.ai to continue improving its service in terms of efficiency, safety and comfort, and to apply its autonomous system operation technologies not just to cars but also to trucks.

Of course, testing hasn’t been limited to Beijing. Other major cities in China have also set up specific zones dedicated to driverless vehicle experimentation, with Beijing E-Town being just one of them. However, it now seems that a new qualitative leap is being considered: enabling Intelligent Connected Vehicles (ICVs) to operate on public roads throughout the country. The Notice on Carrying out Pilot Work of Intelligent and Connected Vehicle Entry-Permit and Road Access points in this direction. It was published on November 17th 2023, jointly by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development and the Ministry of Transport.

This guidance, divided into four parts (access, users, road access, suspension and withdrawal of the pilot project), is intended to direct vehicle manufacturers and users to carry out pilot work in designated city areas in an orderly manner. The goal is to allow ICVs to travel on public roads in designated urban areas, provided those cities have the necessary infrastructure, adequate safety management capacity and have enacted specific policies to support and manage the project. The ICV models qualified for the pilot program are Level 3 and Level 4 vehicles. Driving automation is categorized into six levels, from 0 to 5. While the highest level has not yet been reached, the vehicles covered by the Notice fall into levels 3 or 4, respectively called Conditionally Automated Driving and Highly Automated Driving. In the first case, all aspects of driving are automated but a human driver is still required to intervene if necessary; in the second one, the vehicle can operate autonomously without human intervention under certain conditions.

Currently, only the first of five stages of the program has been implemented —namely, the selection of manufacturers and users who jointly applied to join the scheme. Among the selected entities are Changan Automobile, BYD, GAC Motor, SAIC Motor, BAIC Group, FAW Group, SAIC Hongyan, Yutong Bus and NIO. However, the vehicles from these companies have not yet been granted access permits nor are they authorized to drive on public roads as they must still undergo further phases: product access pilot, on-road passage pilot, pilot suspension and exit, evaluation and adjustment.

In general, the principle of “crossing the river by feeling the stones” seems to also guide the development and rollout of autonomous vehicles —a pragmatic and gradual approach tested on a small scale before wider implementation. So far, this method appears to have achieved moderate success, aided by government support, including financial backing. Autonomous driving represents one of the most recent frontiers in the competition between the People's Republic of China and the United States, and it is the first area where China appears to be taking the lead, both theoretically and practically. On one hand, regarding autonomous system operation technology, ASPI (Australian Strategic Policy Institute) suggests that China is in the lead, though the risk of it monopolizing the technology remains low. On the other hand, China is ahead in terms of permits for conducting real-world driverless testing on public roads; while safety concerns, particularly following a few accidents, have prompted U.S. authorities to proceed more cautiously.

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