China’s first self-driving taxis hit GZ streets

Yesterday (June 30), Guangzhou initiated the inaugural trial of self-driving intelligent connected vehicles operating on roads together.

After tests were conducted on vehicle parts by national-level inspection and testing institutions, two-passenger cars and one commercial vehicle from Pony. ai were included in Guangzhou’s first batch of smart network-connected demonstration catalogue.

Today, the Pony. ai autonomous driving service, which has been operating regularly in Nansha for more than three years, officially opened a charging station and adopted Guangzhou’s unified taxi pricing standard.

The Guangzhou district of Nansha has achieved many firsts in terms of the exploration and promotion of large-scale commercialized intelligent connected vehicles.

By 2025, it is hoped that more than 2,000 such demonstration vehicles will be put into operation, providing various urban-based pilot transport options.

Guangzhou is among the first batch of pilot cities chosen by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development along with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to test network-connected automated vehicles, and many of the country’s relevant enterprises, such as Pony. ai and Baidu Apollo, have manufacturing bases in the city.

Moving forward, tests will also focus on how these autonomous vehicles operate on roads alongside traditional cars.

Written by Hazza Harding

Posted by Zhang Xiaomeng

Producer: Michelle Luo Liting

Executive Producer: Lin Weiqing

Image via 广东新闻广播