Beijing unveils plans to boost driverless vehicle use in capital

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Beijing unveils plans to boost driverless vehicle use in capital

By Qiaoyi Li and Brenda Goh

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s capital Beijing passed new regulations on Tuesday to encourage autonomous driving technology in the city, with authorities planning to eventually allow driverless public buses and taxis.

Autonomous vehicles that pass road testing and safety assessments will be allowed to apply for road trials, the state-backed Beijing Daily newspaper reported, which said the new regulations take effect from April 1.

Trusted news and daily delights, right in your inbox

See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories.

The city supports the use of autonomous vehicles for private cars, urban buses, trams and taxis, it said, adding that it wants to encourage the construction of intelligent road infrastructure to support such transport.

In a separate notice published on Monday, the central ******** city of Wuhan also said it had approved regulations to promote the development of intelligent connected vehicles.

******** authorities have been aggressively greenlighting trials for self-driving technology with at least 19 cities conducting robotaxi and robobus tests, Reuters reported in August.

Companies with large robotaxi fleets in use in China include Apollo Go, a subsidiary of technology giant

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, which plans to deploy 1,000 robotaxis in Wuhan by end-2024.

Pony.ai, which floated in the U.S. market in November, plans to expand its robotaxi fleet nationwide to over 1,000 by 2026 from 250 this year.

Other firms exploring robotaxi opportunities in the world’s largest auto market include WeRide, AutoX and SAIC Motor.

U.S. EV giant Tesla also aims to bring full self-driving (FSD) to China in the first quarter of 2025, pending regulatory approval, and has said it will start producing its own robotaxi in 2026.

(Reporting by Qiaoyi Li and Brenda Goh; Editing by Kim Coghill and Sam Holmes)

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Beijing #unveils #plans #boost #driverless #vehicle #capital

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up