China Issues Licenses To SAIC & NIO To Allow Self-Driving Vehicle Testing On Public Roads (First In Country)

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

The government of China has just issued the first two licenses in the country allowing for testing of self-driving vehicles on public roads there, according to the state-owned news firm Xinhua.

The two licenses in question were awarded to SAIC Motor Corp and NextEV’s NIO — one of the largest auto manufacturers in the country and a strongly backed electric vehicle startup, respectively.

The new licenses allow the license holders to begin testing self-driving vehicles on a 3.5 mile (5.6 kilometer) stretch of public road in the Jiading District of Shanghai.

Reuters provides more: “The licenses were issued after Robin Li, the boss of China’s biggest search engine Baidu, tested his firm’s driverless car on Beijing’s roads in July, stirring controversy as there were no rules for such a test, the agency said.

“NIO said it had received its license from Shanghai Municipal Government. … Shanghai also issued regulations on road tests for such smart cars and said it would promote the application and commercialization of vehicles using artificial intelligence technology and Internet-linked functions, Xinhua reported.”

Testing on larger stretches of public roads will reportedly follow before too long.

This news follows on the release of guidelines by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) allowing for the testing of self-driving vehicles there without human oversight being directly present. It also occurs right around the same time that Waymo’s self-driving vehicle program in Arizona is being opened to be general public.

It’s hard to say how far along the China-based self-driving vehicle tech developers — like Baidu, SAIC, NIO, etc. — are, but for the time being, it appears that Waymo/Google is leading everyone. Though, the Waymo solution seems to be fairly expensive for the time being.


Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest CleanTechnica TV Video


Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

James Ayre has 4830 posts and counting. See all posts by James Ayre