A driverless car drives on a road in Beijing. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

By ZHONG Jianli

Energy and transportation, autonomous vehicles, big data and blockchain, and new-generation AI maps were all on the agenda at the 2021 China Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Conference in Changsha, Hunan province on December 6.

In recent years, continuous innovations in science, technology and engineering have promoted the rapid development of China's ITS industry. The emerging models and forms of business are bringing about more efficient and coordinated development of the industry.

Vehicle-road coordination, autonomous driving, and vehicle-network connections are the important directions in development of the ITS.

The Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area is innovating policies to develop autonomous driving. Designated as a high-level automated driving demonstration zone, a host of self-driving scenarios are realized or tested here.

For example, you could book a driverless car via an APP, and a Robotaxi will pick you up and deliver you to your destination, or you could also stop a self-driving food vehicle with a wave of your hand and scan a QR code to pay for some snacks.

The Authority of the Area has released 20 application scenarios for Intelligent and Connected Vehicles (ICV). It is guiding industrial institutions and enterprises in innovating more ICV scenarios.

In November, the Area was the first in China to roll out some management policies for commercial trials of autonomous driving travel services. Enterprises that are permitted to undertake pilot commercial activities will be restricted to a 60 square kilometer area in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area.

Baidu and Pony.ai are the first enterprises authorized to launch the pilot services. They will put about 100 autonomous vehicles into service in the Area.

According to the policies, the enterprises can adopt a market-oriented pricing mechanism based on the principle of fair competition, but need to inform the passengers of the pricing standards and payment methods before providing services.

The high-level automated driving demonstration zone will expand the trial areas in due course so as to upgrade the travel service for the public.