BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- At present, many regions in China and big companies including Chinese Internet giant Baidu are actively promoting intelligent vehicle projects. Some industry insiders noted that the next few years will present strategic opportunities for automakers, especially in the area of intelligent connected vehicles.
Chinese automaker Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (GAC Group) and Baidu signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement on Tuesday to jointly develop a new generation of intelligent vehicles and explore solutions in self-driving, mobile travel, intelligent connectivity and smart transportation.
On Monday, Beijing municipal transport authorities have granted Baidu permission to conduct driverless road tests on public streets in Beijing, marking a key milestone in the commercial use of intelligent vehicles.
Zu Sijie, vice president and chief engineer of SAIC Motor, believed that intelligent connected vehicles are entering a critical period of development, which requires a large amount of investment and brings both challenges and opportunities to automakers.
Lei Hongjun, senior engineer of Yangtze River Automobile Group, introduced that intelligent vehicle projects boast a promising prospect. For example, Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, will focus on building an intelligent vehicle industry ecosystem and new energy vehicle (NEV) industry based on 5G and the IoV.
Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese government has provided great support for the development of intelligent vehicles. In February, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and other ministries jointly issued the Strategy for Innovation and Development of Intelligent Vehicles, which clarified the goal of conditional mass production of intelligent vehicles by 2025.
In September, four ministries in China jointly issued a guideline proposing to accelerate the establishment of basic support for the intelligent and NEV industry, speed up the construction of NEV charging and swap stations, and carry out road tests and application demonstrations for intelligent connected vehicles.
In November, China unveiled a development plan for its NEV industry in 2021-2035, putting forward to promote the integrated development of electrification, interconnection and intelligentization.
China's intelligent vehicle industry is ushering in a golden period of development, said Gao Jian, deputy director of the International Cooperation Department from NDRC, recently.
According to Gao, China will become the world's largest intelligent vehicle market in the future. In terms of the Internet of vehicles (IoV), the number of connected vehicles in the world is estimated to approach 74 million by 2025, including 28 million in China. As for self-driving, as of June this year, about 282 driving test licenses had been issued in 17 cities across China. (Edited by Zhang Yuan with Xinhua Silk Road, zhangyuan11@xinhua.org)
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