Beijing grants permission for first fully driverless road test

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As of this week, you may run into truly "unmanned vehicles" when driving on Beijing's open test roads for autonomous driving. That's because on Dec. 4 the capital's transportation authorities granted Baidu Apollo five permits to run phase one driverless vehicle tests - meaning no safety drivers is required - in the city. 

This is the first time that Beijing has permitted the testing of driverless vehicles on public streets, marking a significant step in the move towards truly autonomous driving.

On Nov. 12, Beijing issued regulations on driverless road tests, outlining how vehicles must first have T3 or higher testing ability, safely complete more than 30,000 kilometers (18,641 miles) on open roads, and pass an evaluation on a closed course. Baidu's test vehicles have cleared all of these requirements. The company says that the driverless permits are a milestone towards its plan to build a commercial autonomous driving business.

In September, Baidu displayed its fully automated driving capabilities in cooperation with CCTV. But at that time, because it had not yet obtained a fully driverless road test permit, the demonstration could only be operated in a closed park. 

"Under the current regulations, autonomous vehicles are not granted the right to violate traffic rules," said a technician. An official from Baidu revealed that the company has equipped its testing vehicles with its 5G cloud driving system, allowing safety officers to control the vehicle if it needs to cross a double solid line, for instance, to switch into the oncoming lane to avoid a traffic accident.

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