Supportive policies for China's smart car industry under way

By Song Jingli | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-04-26 15:05

Self-driving cars are tested in designated areas of Beijing on Thursday. The city has built a center allowing vehicles to be tested under many conditions on a controlled course.[Photo provided to China Daily]

China is speeding up strategic plan, standards, traffic rules, laws and regulations on accident-incurred liabilities for its smart car industry, Economic Information Daily reported Thursday.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is on its way of rolling out a directive to encourage the smart car sector and is pushing the establishment of an inter-ministry coordination mechanism and is in the process of making the strategic plan, the report said, citing unidentified sources. The next step for the ministry is to announce directives on how to integrate the smart car sector, the smart transportation sector and the telecommunication sector, according to the sources.

China will come up with its own smart car standards, traffic rules, laws and regulations relating to safety, according to the China Industry Innovation Alliance for the Intelligent and Connected Vehicles.

Li Jun, a China Academy of Engineering academician and also director of the alliance's experts' committee, said that China will also launch design guidance for smart cars, smart map architecture and standards for test grounds.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Transport jointly released a draft regulation on road tests for smart and connected vehicles, a move widely believed to remove legal barriers for smart cars to finally hit the road.

Li said the smart car industry is able to enlarge the current car industry by 1 trillion yuan ($158.15 billion) and also able to boost fast development in 5G, internet of cars, big data, artificial intelligence and new-energy vehicles.

Research reports of Guosen Securities and Galaxy Securities said that as technologies mature and as policies and standards are being made and rolled out, there will be key opportunities along the industry chain of smart cars, which have attracted companies in the internet sector, the electronics sector and traditional auto sector.

Zhang Junyi, a partner with NIO Capital, said that the smart car is the trend for the car industry and China's auto sector will usher in a new key development stage with the improvement of infrastructure, technology, policies and laws.