CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- After requesting a ride on the app Apollo Go, a self-driving taxi of Baidu’s Apollo Go will soon arrive at the pickup location. When you get into the taxi, fasten your seat belt, and click on the ‘start’ on the display screen, the driverless will automatically start, speed up, and change lanes…

The interview group of "High-quality Development Research Tour to Chongqing" experienced driverless ride-hailing service at the gate of Yongchuan Big Data Industrial Park.

“It’s marvelous!” “I was a little nervous at first.” “I hope to see driverless cars in other cities.”

After getting off the Apollo vehicle, the three reporters from Guangming Daily talked about the exciting driving experience brought by the self-driving service. Deng Li, a reporter from Farmers Daily, ‘liked’ the experience and even discussed the future development of driverless ride-hailing service with other reporters. The application of AI is common in Yongchuan, where residents can request a driverless ride with their phones.

Chongqing’s intelligent transportation is inseparable from its tremendous efforts made to blaze new trails in the Internet of Vehicles. Infrastructure is essential to the development of the Internet of Vehicles.

With the focus on building an open test and demonstrative operation base for self-driving vehicles in western China, Yongchuan has conducted smart transformation of dozens of intersections, deployed the V2X vehicle-road collaborative system, and applied technologies such as roadside perception, edge computing, and vehicle-road communication to improve the vehicle-road collaborative environment, said Xiong Zupin, General Manager of Yongchuan Big Data Industrial Park.

How can driverless vehicles run smoothly and safely on the road? Xiong said that the V2X vehicle-road collaborative system will collect the send the information about pedestrians, vehicles, traffic lights, and other road conditions to the ‘brain’ of the vehicle, so as to ensure a safer and smarter ride.

Xiong Zupin added that since Yongchuan started the automatic driving test operation in 2022, more than 300 manned stations and more than 130 unmanned stations have been built, covering more than 32 square kilometers of the urban area. Yongchuan will gradually extend the coverage of automatic driving stations in the old urban area with a complicated road network.

“In addition to supporting enterprises to carry out demonstrative operations of self-driving taxis, we will also promote large-scale trial operations of intelligent connected vehicles in sanitation, cargo loading, distribution, connection and security," said Xiong Zupin. Based on the advantages of Yongchuan, COWA ROBOT will locate its R&D and manufacturing headquarters in Yongchuan, and JD will start the trial operations of its low-speed delivery project in Yongchuan. Yongchuan will accelerate the studies and formulation of industrial regulations and standards for intelligent connected vehicles.

To promote the in-depth integrated development of the Internet of Vehicles, smart transportation, and smart city, Yongchuan will integrate data from traffic police, traffic management, and the Chongqing municipal administration systems to build a Yongchuan Intelligent Traffic Brain and launch intelligent timing of traffic lights, urban green wave, and other application. By then, the urban traffic congestion rate will drop 11.3%, and the time for car parking will reduce.

In Yongchuan, 1,385 kilometers of roads have been opened up to the public for the testing and demonstrative application of self-driving vehicles. 30 mu of land beside the Yongchuandong Station of the Chengdu-Chongqing High-speed Railway will be used for the construction of a demonstration and operation center for self-driving vehicles. The project has entered the design stage and is expected to be completed and put into service next year. (Translated by Yuki, Fathom Language Limited)