With the deep integration of automotive and electronics, communications, energy, intelligent networked vehicles with distinctive cross-border integration characteristics have emerged and become the direction of global industrial development. Europe, the U.S., and Japan are all strengthening their strategic planning, increasing policy support, speeding up the development process, and have successfully introduced several regulations and policies to support enterprise testing and demonstration of intelligent networked vehicles. In addition, major multinational car companies and technology giants have increased their investment in innovation and integration, accelerating the development and application of high-grade autonomous driving vehicles, and enterprises in China's automotive and related industries are also actively conducting product development and verification. As a result, there is an urgent demand for road testing and demonstration applications from all sides.
In April 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Transport jointly issued the "Management Specification for Intelligent Networked Vehicles Road Testing (for Trial Implementation)", which has played a positive guiding role. 27 provinces (cities) across the country have issued management rules, built 16 intelligent network-linked vehicle test demonstration zones, opened more than 3,500 kilometres of test roads, issued more than 700 test licenses, and covered a total of more than 7 million kilometres of road testing; Changsha, Shanghai, and Beijing have also carried out demonstration applications of human-crewed vehicles, and new mode applications such as unmanned logistics and distribution have also played an important role during the fight against the new crown pneumonia epidemic. A series of road tests were conducted nationally to promote the development of China's intelligent networked vehicle industry with positive results, basically at the "parallel" stage with the global advanced level, with the market penetration rate of new passenger cars of L2-level intelligent networked vehicles reaching 15% in 2020 and increasing to about 20% in the first half of 2021. The L3-level autonomous driving models are being tested and verified in specific scenarios; perception equipment such as high-precision cameras and LIDAR have reached international advanced levels, and vehicle-grade AI chips have been installed in several models; several places have accelerated the deployment of infrastructure such as 5G communications and roadside networking equipment, increased the digital transformation of traffic equipment, and carried out vehicle-road collaboration pilots.
In road-testing work, there are also problems such as non-uniform testing schemes, non-mutual recognition of test results and lack of vehicle-road cooperation, etc. Industry enterprises have put forward demands for further liberalisation of highways and safety officer-free testing. In June 2020, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Implementation Opinions on Further Optimizing the Business Environment to Better Serve Market Players", proposing to explore the demonstration and application of intelligent network-connected vehicles in specific road sections and regions, unify the testing standards for autonomous driving functions, and promote the mutual recognition of test results nationwide. To implement the requirements of the State Council document, adapt to the new development needs of the industry, and promote the expansion from road testing to demonstration applications, the three departments have initiated the revision of the "Management Specification for Intelligent Networked Vehicles Road Testing (for Trial Implementation)".
The Auto components Working Group wrote within its Annual Position Paper for 2020 and 2021, indicated the ICV industry above issue, the existing test standards for safety remain not unified, and relevant laws and regulations remain to be improved. Therefore, asking relevant supervision body to accelerate the construction of test regulations and establish a complete test evaluation system, to actively cooperate with multinational companies to jointly develop test standards and realise experience and data- sharing, to facilitate cross-border data flows to allow continuous improvement of design, operations, and maintenance of ICVs. The closed-door session is scheduled to align the group members and discuss the top priorities on existing test standards for safety. Relevant laws and regulations remain to be improved to prepare further advocacy we are planning.