China Is Working On Highway Lanes Dedicated To Self-Driving Cars

Keep Driving On The Left

In the competition to be the leading country in the fully-autonomous driving technology, China has been an active player in recent years. Its latest effort is to build a system of highways with dedicated lanes for the self-driving cars. In fact, they have even completed a 62-mile of freeway built with two dedicated lanes for the AVs (autonomous vehicles).

The objective of the Chinese is that this huge infrastructure investment will allow the AVs to get to real-world traffic conditions. The other advantage is that these lanes will help ensure the still somewhat limited AV tech to be tested in a risk-minimized environment for human drivers.

Putting down the Groundwork

This highway is just one of the many in the plan of China. They expect it to connect Beijing to the New Xiongan Area in Hebei province, according to the report of FutureCar. The Chinese government plan to complete the road by next year and expect that this new road will help reduce the travel time between two areas.

They hope to achieve that thanks to many integrated sensors run along the length of the highway to support the AVs. Finally, maybe building a big infrastructure project might be actually a good ground up to jumpstart the AVs revolution.

Self-Driving Cars in China

The future of self-driving cars is coming closer in China. Currently, private firms and local authorities are working hard together to test out the amazing technology. They are handing out over 100 number plates for public road tests. In total, as of the moment, China has issued more than 101  license plates for self-driving card to 32 companies in 14 cities.

In fact, Baidu Inc the giant Chinese internet search has alone obtained about 50 plates. Beijing is the city with the most licenses for testing out self-driving cars on the public road with 56 licenses. It is followed by Shanghai and Chongqing.