Eastern China’s Hangzhou to test self-driving vehicles in downtown, urban areas

Eight main districts in Hangzhou including downtown Gongshu and Shangcheng, as well as Tonglu county, will be open for self-driving vehicle tests from May 1
Hangzhou’s initiative shows much-needed local government support for China’s autonomous-driving system developers

Self-driving cars and autonomous vehicles

Ben Jiangin Beijing

Published: 9:00am, 1 May 2024

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The municipal government of Hangzhou, the capital of eastern Zhejiang province, is looking to help step up China’s autonomous transport ambitions by opening the city’s main urban areas to self-driving vehicles starting from this year’s May Day holiday.

Eight main districts in the city including downtown Gongshu and Shangcheng, as well as Tonglu county – covering an area of 3,474 square kilometres – will be made available to pilot tests of self-driving vehicles from Wednesday, according to a report by local outlet Qianjiang Evening News.

This new initiative by Hangzhou forms part of a new municipal policy to bolster the application of “intelligent connected vehicles” within the city, helping China’s move towards a driverless future.

Under that policy, which was published by the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information on April 2 and takes effect from Wednesday, the local government will set up a system to coordinate the self-driving vehicle tests based on certain technical categories.

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The policy document did not specify which level of autonomous driving technology would be permitted for the pilot tests. Hangzhou’s municipal government previously issued permits for up to Level 4 (L4) autonomous driving.

Global standards body SAE International defines L4 as autonomous driving that does not require human intervention in most circumstances, but the driver still has the option to manually take control of the car. L5, or fully autonomous driving, means a vehicle does not need human intervention under any circumstances.

Hangzhou’s initiative shows much-needed local government support for China’s autonomous-driving system developers, which include both Big Tech firms and start-ups, as these enterprises struggle to make noticeable gains in turning their vision of a future full of self-driving cars into steady profits.

A Pony.ai autonomous vehicle during a demonstration in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, on April 10, 2019. Photo: Bloomberg

Hangzhou’s new policy also requires all data generated and gathered from the tests in the city should be stored locally. Any potential export of data will be first evaluated under China’s data-security regulation.

Still, residents of Hangzhou are not expected to see self-driving cars becoming commonplace in the city any time soon owing to the careful approval process for such vehicles.

A self-driving vehicle must complete certain virtual-driving and closed-scene tests before it is allowed for practical road tests, according to the policy.