The office of the Beijing high-level autonomous driving demonstration area launched a road test of unmanned police patrol cars on Tuesday, the first of its kind in China.

Fifteen self-driving patrol cars, complete with flashing lights, hit the public roads in the autonomous driving demonstration area in Yizhuang, performing round-the-clock police duties in coordination with officers from the Daxing Branch of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.

The duties being tested include patrolling, ensuring security for large-scale events, public announcements, issuing warnings and emergency rescue work.

"The electric unmanned patrol cars possess Level 4 autonomous driving technology. They can complete battery replacement in 30 seconds and have a driving range of 100 km," said Zhang Weiling, senior vice president of Neolix, developer of the patrol cars.

The vehicles feature a 360-degree multi-sensor fusion perception capability with a detection range of up to 120 meters. The powerful onboard computing platform can calculate and respond based on road conditions in real time, thus ensuring vehicle driving safety.

The unmanned vehicle team will patrol an area of 60 square kilometers in the demonstration area.

Since Beijing initiated the autonomous driving demonstration area in September 2020, it has built 160 square kilometers of area equipped with intelligent connected roads and a dedicated smart city network.

A total of 28 vehicle testing companies are operating in the demonstration area. Over 800 vehicles are now engaged in testing and commercial exploration, with a cumulative test mileage exceeding 20 million kilometers.