China News Service, Ordos, March 10th: Ordos, a major coal city, tests the waters for driverless driving
China News Service reporter Li Aiping
On the morning of March 10, 26-year-old Liu Jiaqi sat on the left side of a silver driverless bus on Wenhua Dongxi Road in Kangbashi District, starting her work rhythm.
She leaned forward and clicked the button on the front of the driverless bus workbench with her right hand.
One second later, the car, which can accommodate nine passengers, began to drive autonomously.
The picture shows the driverless buses launched in Ordos.
Photo by Li Aiping
The bus Liu Jiaqi is riding now is a driverless bus that was launched in Kangbashi District, Ordos, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at the end of June 2023.
As an employee of the Ordos Intelligent Network Innovation Center, Liu Jiaqi always held a palm-sized handle controller in her hand while the bus was driving, but she had never used it during the set unmanned bus route.
"This controller is a manual device for emergency use and is not used under normal circumstances." Liu Jiaqi told reporters that since she served as the safety officer of the driverless bus, the driverless bus has traveled 6,000 kilometers safely.
Huhe Manda is the safety officer of the unmanned taxi test vehicle in Kangbashi District, Ordos. He told reporters, "Although there is a steering wheel in the car, it has never been used. It drives automatically according to the set route. So far, There were no violations.”
Chen Hongjun, head of Ordos Intelligent Network Innovation Center, said in an interview that Ordos is ready to develop new energy intelligent network vehicles (i.e. driverless).
Qiao Hongmei, director of the Kangbashi District Science and Technology Bureau, said that in accordance with the pilot requirements for the "vehicle-road-cloud integration" application of intelligent connected vehicles issued by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other five ministries, the Ordos New Energy Intelligent Connected Vehicle Project is currently in Kangbashi. Shi District has opened a total test road area of 355.75 square kilometers.
Since the project entered the test operation stage at the end of June 2023, the two driverless buses have received a total of 10,860 tourists and citizens, and the three driverless test vehicles have been experienced by 2,600 passengers.
It is worth mentioning that since the end of June 2023, Ordos has also launched unmanned cleaning vehicles, and as of the end of February this year, it has completed a total of about 1,000 kilometers of urban road cleaning; in addition, the city’s online unmanned sales vehicles have now completed a total of Operating income is approximately 70,000 yuan.
The picture shows the driverless sweeper truck launched in Ordos.
Photo by Li Aiping
Wu Qiang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, revealed in an interview with reporters that recently, Ordos and Chery Automobile Company jointly applied for a pilot project for intelligent networked vehicle access and road access.
Wu Qiang believes that this move will bring more opportunities for Ordos to develop the new energy intelligent connected automobile industry.
"In 2023, the national production and sales of new energy vehicles will complete 9.587 million and 9.495 million respectively, a year-on-year increase of 35.8% and 37.9% respectively. The sales of new energy vehicles will reach 31.6% of the total sales of new automobiles. Industrial development will maintain a good growth trend." Wu. Qiang believes that China's intelligent connected vehicles have entered a new stage of industrialization and large-scale development, and all localities should speed up the promotion of pilot demonstrations and promote the large-scale development of the intelligent connected vehicle industry.
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