Automated driving China wants to lead in autonomous driving

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China's government is launching a new pilot program and issuing licenses for automated driving on public roads. Initially for Level 3 functions, but the goal is autonomous driving.

The Chinese government wants to promote autonomous driving and is expanding its funding programs to this end. This is supposed to make domestic car manufacturers more competitive internationally, report state-controlled media such as the Global Times in Beijing. Since the beginning of this month, the central government has been implementing a plan to this effect that was already published in November of the previous year. This will significantly expand road tests across the country.

As of June 4, nine companies have received new licenses to start level 3 automated driving. All nine are Chinese manufacturers, including the car manufacturers BYD and SAIC, which have just been hit with punitive tariffs by the EU Commission. "Level 3" is the third highest level according to the Chinese classification of assistance systems and automated driving functions. This ranges from level 1 (simple driving assistance) to level 5 (completely driverless). At level 3, also known as "conditional driving automation", vehicles are allowed to drive without a driver under certain conditions, as long as a human can intervene in case of an emergency situation.

Seven metropolises involved

The pilot program will begin simultaneously in seven Chinese metropolises, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. This is the first concrete implementation of the "Notice on Conducting the Pilot Program for Intelligent Connected Vehicle Access and Road Traffic" plan from November 2023. With this, China is significantly ahead in terms of permission for road tests for driverless driving. Elsewhere, including in the U.S. and Japan, authorities have recently become more cautious following accidents.

General Motors' "Cruise" robotaxi service suspended its service last fall after one of its cars collided with a pedestrian in San Francisco. The pedestrian had been hit by a "normal" car and had been pushed into the path of the robotaxi. The regulatory authorities in California then suspended the relevant license for the car manufacturer. GM has since begun limited tests in Phoenix and Arizona, as recently reported by the New York Times.

Engineering

Virtual testing of cockpit software and functions

The Japanese government has suspended tests for driverless golf carts after one of them ran into the pedals of a parked bicycle. No one was injured in the incident. The tests with the golf carts were able to resume in March of this year.

Overtaking Western competitors

The FSD (Full Self-Driving) from Tesla is a level 2 driving system. Drivers must be attentive and keep their hands on the wheel. Elon Musk had recently visited Beijing to promote the approval of FSD in China again. 

The new pilot program now allows the participating Chinese companies to conduct road tests that go beyond anything approved worldwide in terms of territorial expansion and potential risk. This allows automated driving on many public roads at a level more advanced than Tesla's FSD system.

The Ministry of Industry in Beijing wrote in its announcement that this should pave the way for the "further commercialization of advanced autonomous driving technologies". China's communist leadership hopes that the expanded road tests will help its domestic industry to take over international technological leadership in automated driving.

Overtake in technological change

"Experts say this latest measure will strengthen the competitiveness of the Chinese New Energy Vehicles sector," writes the nationalistic Beijing-based newspaper Global Times. By "New Energy Vehicles" or NEV, they mean vehicles with alternative drives, especially electric cars and hybrids.

Beijing sees the rapid commercialization of new technologies as an opportunity to economically compete better with established industrial nations such as Germany, Japan, or the USA. The idea is to proverbially "overtake them in the curve," with the curve referring to the disruption caused by new technologies, say Chinese interlocutors. The Chinese Society of Automotive Engineers has predicted that by 2030, 20 percent of all vehicles sold in China will be completely autonomous (level 5). An additional 70 percent will be equipped with relatively advanced assistance systems.

Buses and trucks without drivers too

The nine manufacturers that have been confirmed for the pilot program are:

• BAIC Blue Park

• BYD

• Changan Auto

• China FAW Group

• GAC

• Nio

• SAIC

• SAIC Hongyan and

• Yutong Bus

The list indicates that soon not only cars but also buses and trucks will be on the roads of the seven cities without drivers. Over the past few years, the Chinese government has already distributed a large number of test licenses to various manufacturers, including foreign OEMs in China, which are severely limited in terms of both time and location. A total of 6,800 such test licenses had been granted by April of this year, reports the Global Times.

On roads totaling 29,000 kilometers (approx. 18,000 miles) throughout China, limited tests have already been allowed. The manufacturers have so far been able to gather experiences on 88 million test kilometers (approx. 55 million miles), according to the report. The new pilot program further expands this experimental spirit. The Chinese authorities do place a lot of importance on the safety of other road users. As the next step in the pilot program, the nine companies must "develop detailed plans for product access tests and safety assessments," reports the Chinese automotive portal Gasgoo. Also, the manufacturers and operators of the tests are liable for accidents.

Goal is to strengthen domestic providers

Nevertheless, the pilot program means that the participating Chinese companies have come a significant step closer to the commercialization of autonomous driving. Participation is the first step towards market approval. This increases the progress of Chinese car manufacturers compared to international OEMs like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla. These have received isolated test licenses for level 3 tests in China but have not been involved in the pilot program spanning a total of five stages. At the end of which, production licenses for the construction and sale of advanced autonomous driving systems in China will stand.

The users of the autonomous vehicles participating in the pilot program include mobility providers, some of which Chinese automakers have stakes in, such as in the case of the "Shanghai SAIC Intelligent Technology Service," where SAIC holds shares. There are companies controlled by local governments in China, like the "Zhengzhou City Public Transportation Group" that collaborates closely with bus manufacturer Yutong. But private Chinese automakers like "Shanghai NIO Automobile" have also been included in the program.

What is currently happening in the field of autonomous driving in China is repeating the pattern seen in the development of e-mobility. While initially American or German companies develop the fundamentals, Chinese companies are intended to take leading positions in commercialization. In China, they are willing to implement this plan to the end. The pilot program now started shows this industry-friendly approach again. Accidents and press reports about them cannot derail the authorities' cooperation with local manufacturers and their long-term development plans.