Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong took an autonomous bus to tour the Guangzhou International Bio Island on March 27, the first day of his official visit to China, which drew global attention to the city's autonomous vehicles industry.
PwC held a seminar on intelligent connected vehicles (ICV) in Guangzhou's Nansha on March 30, inviting government officers, scholars, and entrepreneurs of leading companies in the industry to share insight into the latest trend of the business.
（Photo provided to GDToday）
"Guangdong saw rapid growth in the ICV sector. Guangzhou is the first to start most of the road tests nationwide and is home to leading autonomous vehicle companies such as Pony.ai and WeRide. Applications such as Robotaxi have been launched for passengers to access the technology in their daily life. In contrast, Shenzhen takes the lead in the auto part supply chain, formulating regulation on auto driving and data services," Hao Xinhua, Head of Industry Centre of Guangzhou Urban Planning & Design Survey Research Institute, analyzed.
Hao elaborated that Guangzhou is the first to approve the 5G remote driving test, recognize road test permits for ICV in other cities, issue test licenses for autonomous driving with passengers, validate Robotaxi technology in batches, allow road testing on the main roads in the city centre, and approve permits for operating ride-hailing services for self-driving R&D companies.
The automobile industry is one of the pillar industries in Guangzhou, with an output value of over 600 billion RMB in 2021, ranking first among cities in China in terms of production. Since 2018, the Guangzhou ICV Road Test Management Office has been set up to boost the industry. Guangzhou allows autonomous vehicle tests on 433 roads, with a total of 308 test vehicles from 13 companies conducting road tests and a total of over 9.7 million kilometres of testing by 2022, according to the Guangzhou Municipal Industry and Information Technology Bureau.
Jiang Jun, Deputy Director of Guangzhou Nansha Economic and Technological Development Zone Investment Promotion Bureau, said that Nansha District of Guangzhou has taken the lead in promoting the ICT industry. He elaborated that the district has been optimizing supportive policies in the fields of financing, R&D, and application scenarios.
The autonomous vehicle company, Pony.ai settled in Nansha in 2017. "Nansha opens all of its 803-square kilometre space for the autonomous driving test. Our Robotaxi has been running tests in Nansha for more than three years, and the mileage of operation reached 200,000 kilometres with no involvement in any active liability traffic accidents," said Liu Xiaoxi, director of government affairs of Pony.ai.
According to Liu, Pony.ai received a license for driverless taxis in April 2022, which makes the company the first self-driving company to achieve a taxi license in China and operate 100 driverless taxis in Nansha. She believes the data collected from these road tests can not only contribute to the company's technological optimization, but offer a reference for the district to develop its smart transport system.
Sha Zhiren, Director of Traffic Brain Lab of Guangdong Fundway Technology, said that Nansha leads the development of a smart transport system citywide. "In the future, we will simulate the traffic conditions on the digital system for urban road planning based on road and traffic information we have collected. In this way, we can solve the problem of traffic congestion," he said.
Zheng Yueping, Director of the Digital Governance Center of Sun Yat-sen University, analyzed that Guangzhou has the advantages of developing ICV, especially in terms of the scale of the industry, talent pool, and the investment of R&D.
He proposed that Guangzhou could improve the ecosystem so that businesses, universities, and R&D facilities could communicate more effectively to spur innovations and reach an agreement on the regulation of the sector.
As for the government, Zheng indicated that the license approval procedure should be optimized, and more services for talent to meet the needs of ICV industry development should be provided. The infrastructures for transportation could also be upgraded further to include digitalization and connections to smart transportation systems.
Reported by Jasmine, Nina
Editors丨Wing, Nan, James
