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China Wants National Standard For Autonomous Cars, Opens Zone For Testing Them

China is getting in on the self-driving vehicle game, and the country wants to regulate the industry before things get out of hand.
Woman reading in a self-driving Volvo 1 photo
Photo: Volvo
According to a report, China wants to set up a national standard for autonomous cars. For the moment, the contents of the norm have not been published, as authorities are still working on the legislation.

Meanwhile, the Society of Automotive Engineers of China is also developing a paper concerning a “national auto-intelligence network technology roadmap,” and it will be published soon.

China is the world’s largest car market, so it is natural for them to be among the first to set standards in the future industry of self-driving vehicles.

Most likely, the rules proposed by Chinese regulators will contain principles that will be found in homonymous legislation that will be found in other markets.

We expect legislators to write bills that will oblige automakers who want to build and sell autonomous cars to implement several safety features.

Just like in the aviation industry, these vehicles will have to be fitted with several protective devices, such as a secondary autonomous drive system that is ready to take over if there is an issue with the primary unit.

At the same time, China also wants to allow automakers to test self-driving vehicles on its roads. Before they do that, Shanghai’s Jiading district has opened China’s first pilot zone for testing self-driving cars according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s upcoming guidelines.

The first phase of the test zone covers an area of five square kilometers (almost two square miles), and the government plans to expand the project in two phases. By 2020, the complex will cover 100 square kilometers (39 sq mi) of Jiading, and will include public roads.

According to People.cn, the test zone can simulate road construction, collisions, speeding, and other kinds of traffic conditions. Thanks to these simulations, China will allow automakers to step up their game when it comes to autonomous vehicles, if they choose to develop them in Jiading.
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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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