Wuhan becomes world's largest autonomous driving operation service region

Autonomous vehicles are seen in the Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (WEDZ), Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province. [Photo provided to en.whkfq.gov.cn]

In 2023, the National Intelligent Connected Vehicle (ICV) (Wuhan) Testing Demonstration Zone had nearly 500 regularly-operated autonomous vehicles (including autonomous taxis and unmanned buses) and received a total of 732,000 orders for autonomous travel services throughout the year, serving 900,000 individuals.

By the end of 2023, the demonstration zone had 491 such regularly-operated autonomous vehicles, with over 90 percent of these vehicles operating in the Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (WEDZ) and Dongxihu district of Wuhan.

By the end of 2023, the total open test road mileage in the city had exceeded 3,378.73 kilometers, covering all 12 of Wuhan's administrative districts and reaching over 7.7 million people, the most in the nation.

China and the United States are the two leaders in autonomous travel services globally. Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet (Google's parent company), is the largest autonomous travel service provider in the U.S. Currently, Waymo mainly operates autonomous travel services in Phoenix and San Francisco, with Los Angeles and Austin soon to be added to that list.

So far, Wuhan has issued over 1,800 licenses for autonomous driving road testing and operation, leading to 19 enterprises conducting regular ICV testing and operations.