Recently, an official from Beijing’s high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone announced that the city is advancing the legislative work for the “Beijing Autonomous Vehicle Regulations,” aiming for implementation next year. Currently, the demonstration zone has achieved the intelligent deployment of road-side facilities across 600 square kilometers, with plans to expand to a larger area and broader scenarios in the future. According to reports, there are plans to extend the demonstration zone between the Fourth and Sixth Ring Roads, covering approximately 3,000 square kilometers.
In Tongzhou and Shunyi, there are 1,115 intersections undergoing smart upgrades. In September 2020, Beijing pioneered the establishment of the nation’s first high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area. The initiative focuses on five key areas: “smart vehicles, intelligent roads, real-time cloud, reliable networks, and precise maps,” creating a city-level engineering testing platform. After four years of development, a comprehensive integrated infrastructure now spans 600 square kilometers in the city.
In addition to the Economic Development Zone, this 600 square kilometer area also encompasses parts of Tongzhou and Shunyi districts. “Currently, both Tongzhou and Shunyi cover 440 square kilometers, where we are deploying intelligent roadside devices at 1,115 intersections. The main construction is complete, and we are now in the final stages of testing,” said Chen Han, head of the Roadside Research Department at Beijing Car Network Technology Development Co. Once operational, these devices will support 56 functions across five major sectors, including traffic law enforcement and autonomous driving supervision.
So, how exactly do roads become intelligent? Thanks to a proactive deployment of roadside equipment, 257 signal-controlled intersections within a 60 square kilometer area of the Economic Development Zone are currently undergoing dynamic optimization. The perception devices and algorithms at these intersections can “see” traffic flow and “understand” patterns, intelligently adjusting the timing of traffic signals to minimize waiting times for vehicles.
Data indicates that at key intersections in the demonstration zone, where traffic flow has increased by 20%, average stopping instances have decreased by 22%, average travel time has shortened by 12%, and average speeds have risen by 12%. Moreover, the cost of building roadside infrastructure has decreased by over 70% from phase 1.0 to phase 3.0.
As of now, the demonstration zone has issued road testing licenses for nearly 900 vehicles from 33 testing companies, with autonomous driving test mileage exceeding 32 million kilometers—accounting for over a quarter of the national total. Autonomous shuttle tests are already underway at key transport hubs like Beijing Daxing International Airport, Beijing South Railway Station, and Yizhuang Railway Station, facilitating a fully operational autonomous driving logistics scenario on the Beijing-Tianjin-Tanggu Expressway.
In the current phase 3.0, which spans 600 square kilometers, key areas include Capital International Airport, the new National Exhibition Center, and the urban sub-centre. The plan includes extending autonomous shuttle services to stations such as Chaoyang, Fengtai, Qinghe, the urban sub-centre, and the international airport as phase 4.0 development progresses.
The success of smart autonomous vehicles hinges on the collaborative networks of roads, cloud infrastructure, and maps. The demonstration zone has established the EUHT urban-level dual-intelligent network, creating the largest C-V2X interconnected region in the country, with a multi-format network environment suitable for high-level autonomous driving. Furthermore, a high-precision dynamic mapping platform has been developed, ensuring comprehensive coverage and compliance in high-precision mapping applications.
Regarding legislative developments in autonomous driving, the 3.0 phase of the demonstration zone is set for completion this year, with a push for accelerated construction for phase 4.0 next year. This means that the autonomous vehicles currently operating in Yizhuang will soon access a broader range and more diverse scenarios. Officials also revealed that the city is advancing the legislative process for the “Beijing Autonomous Vehicle Regulations,” aiming for implementation next year. This will address the current needs of smart interconnected vehicles while providing clear, transparent, and predictable regulatory frameworks for the research and management of L3 and above intelligent networked vehicles.
Thanks to the continuous updates at both the institutional and scenario levels within the demonstration zone, the ecosystem for the smart connected vehicle industry is gradually improving. Kong Lei, director of the management committee of the Economic Development Zone, stated that to better support different types of companies at various stages of development, a systematic plan has been made for 2.7 million square meters of industrial space. This includes establishing an innovation port for smart connected vehicles, a headquarters for the automotive industry, cutting-edge technology research bases, high-end manufacturing demonstration bases, and supporting ecological bases, shaping a comprehensive automotive innovation city.
Under the latest supportive policies, Yizhuang aims to create an ecological demonstration zone for autonomous driving, with incentives for expanding application scenarios. The government will provide a maximum of 3 million yuan in support for enterprises focused on smart connected vehicles based on a testing mileage reimbursement of 6 yuan per kilometer, alongside major funding for projects addressing key technologies related to integrated vehicular infrastructure.
