Ningbo to build self-driving car demo zone by 2019

Ningbo aims to build a comprehensive demonstration zone for self-driving cars and smart transportation at its Hangzhou Bay New Zone by August 31, 2019, a significant move in the city's exploration of self-driving technologies after the first Geely driverless car was launched at the zone last year. 

As one of the pilot cities appointed by China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development for the construction of smart car infrastructure, Ningbo has been striving to create an intelligent-infrastructure-based testing environment for self-driving vehicles at the zone, so as to build the zone into a hub for the testing, application and innovation of smart and internet-connected vehicles. 

The intelligent infrastructure will be first established at the Geely Automobile Research Institute of the zone, to test the reliability of some key technologies of self-driving, before being extended to more urban roads next year. 

Based on the infrastructure, an integrated testing platform for smart and internet-connected vehicles will be set up by the year end, and a comprehensive demonstration zone integrating technologies of V2X + 5G, edge computing and high-precision positioning will be established at the zone by August 31, 2019, which will be the first of its kind in the world. 

Upon the zone's construction, multiple roads in the zone will be renovated to have intelligent road signs, traffic lights and cameras to guarantee the safety of self-driving cars.