Anting auto city launches driverless demonstration zone

A driverless demonstration and experience zone has been officially launched recently at Anting Shanghai International Auto City, indicating that the era of genuine driverless cars has arrived.

Previously, when a driverless vehicle ran on Jiading District's streets, a security worker sat in the driver's seat. In the demonstration and experience zone, however, the security guard simply sits in the back seat. The car starts smoothly and automatically adjusts its speed and direction. When there are pedestrians ahead, the car slows down. It can also brake suddenly when it detects a red traffic light or obstacles.

"To collect road data, sensors and wireless telecom equipment are installed on the demonstration road. We can see the road distance and condition on the car's screen," said Wu Junxian, vice general manager of Shanghai Songhong Intelligent Auto Technology Co Ltd.

The demonstration and experience zone is an important part of the National Pilot Intelligent Connected Vehicles (Shanghai) Demonstration Area, involving various robotaxi driverless scenarios such as driverless travel, driverless cleaning, driverless delivery and driverless retail.

Several companies, including SAIC, Baidu, and White Rhino, demonstrated their driverless products at the launch ceremony.

The demonstration and experience zone is located in the Shanghai Auto Expo Park, and the project is divided into two phases based on the park's 3.8-kilometer half-open road.

The first phase's 1.2-kilometer road is now operational, while the second phase's 2.6-kilometer road is still being planned and is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

According to officials, the zone's launch will add more ICVs testing scenarios as well as real-world proofs and safety guarantees for the stable operation of driverless cars.

Anting Shanghai International Auto City will invest more to create a testing environment for practical driverless driving.