ICV testing roads connect Hanyang with Hankou

A map marking intelligent connected vehicle (ICV) testing roads in Wuhan. [Photo provided to en.whkfq.gov.cn]

On Aug 14, the approval for the announcement of the seventh batch of 651.35 kilometers (one-way mileage) of intelligent connected vehicles (ICV) testing roads in Wuhan was obtained.

The open range of this batch of roads is distributed in the three central administrative districts of Wuhan, including 48.14 km in the Qiaokou district, 177.65 km in the Hanyang district, and 425.56 km in the Dongxihu district. So far, the total mileage of roads used for ICV testing and demonstration application in Wuhan has reached 1,462.91 km (one-way mileage), covering an area of approximately 1,100 square kilometers and reaching over 4 million people.

The National ICV (Wuhan) Test and Demonstration Zone, based in the Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (WEDZ), was unveiled in Sept 2019. It is China's sixth national-level ICV test demonstration zone and the first in Central China. It is also among the earliest demonstration zones to issue commercial licenses for autonomous driving.

On April 28, 2021, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued a notice, designating Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Changsha, and Wuxi as the first batch of pilot cities for the coordinated development of smart city infrastructure and ICVs. After four years of development, as of now, the National ICV (Wuhan) Test and Demonstration Zone has issued a total of 1,022 licenses to 19 autonomous driving companies.

The demonstration zone's network platform has so far connected 675 ICVs, with a total mileage of over 7.8 million km and a total testing duration of over 530,000 hours.

Currently, the Wuhan Demonstration Zone is conducting regular testing and operation of over 340 ICVs (Robotaxi, Robobus), with over 330,000 travel service orders and over 420,000 people served.