Beijing authorized first driverless vehicle road tests

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Beijing gave China’s tech giant Baidu green light to conduct open-road tests for its driverless vehicles, days after the fatal collision between an Uber autonomous vehicle and a pedestrian on March 20.

According to regulations for autonomous vehicles in Beijing, cars intend to apply for self-driving test license must have run for a total of 5000 kilometers involving daily training in closed-door test fields. They also must have past an ability evaluation of its level, including knowledge of traffic law, execution of self-driving capabilities and manual mode switch under emergency.

Before put on duty, test operators must have not less than 50 hours of training for taking over control from the autonomous system at any time.

Self-driving cars conducting open-road tests in Beijing. /Chinadaily Photo

All autonomous vehicles must be evaluated by experts before employing on streets. With supervision facilities equipped, autonomous cars are regulated to send back real-time data while being tested in order to ensure they are at the right location during the right time.

According to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport, construction of the first closed test site for autonomous vehicles in the city was completed. With an area of about 1333 acres, the site possesses multiple types of road include urban and country.

A total of 33 roads, about 105 kilometers in length, will be opened as the batch for driverless-vehicle testing. For safety concern, all tests will proceed on roads outside of Beijing’s Fifth Ring to avoid crowded areas, and conspicuous signs will be installed on test routes.

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