Shanghai aims to build a RMB500 billion ($72 billion) system to develop smart connected vehicles by 2025, taking the lead in China, according to the megacity’s latest action plan released on September 5, reported Yicai Global.
Seventy percent of Shanghai’s new cars will be equipped with Level 2 and Level 3 self-driving systems by 2025, the plan showed, with Level 4 vehicles commercially available in some areas and in some scenarios.
China's Taxonomy of Driving Automation for Vehicles introduced in March defines six self-driving levels: L0, emergency assistance; L1, partial driving assistance; L2, integrated driving assistance; L3, conditional autonomous driving; L4, highly autonomous driving; and L5, fully autonomous driving.
L2, with standard features including cruise control, lane keeping, and parking, has been widely implemented. L2 and above smart models accounted for 38 percent of all new vehicles in the first half of the year, with L3 models making up 5 percent, according to Citic Securities.
SAIC Motor(上汽集团), China’s biggest automaker, and US electric car giant Tesla have big production bases in Shanghai. Among mainstream car producers in the city, Tesla has become the benchmark for intelligent driving. SAIC also recently started installing L2 smart driving systems on a grand scale, Yicai Global noted.
Shanghai’s plan also included exploring sustainable operations for smart rental vehicles to help commercialize driverless taxis. A number of robotaxi companies, including SAIC’s Xiangdao Mobility(享道出行), Baidu, and Pony.ai, have already launched passenger-carrying test vehicles in Shanghai.
For heavy trucks, the plan encourages firms to promote the application of autonomous driving in port logistics, reduce the need for humans, speed up the commercialization of operations, and explore unmanned operations.
SAIC's self-driving unit Utopilot has been running commercially at the ports of Shanghai, Ningbo, and Qingdao; It has covered 2.8 million kilometers of self-driving mileage and the trans-shipment of 93,000 standard containers under its belt, Yicai Global said.
