Chinese Startup WeRide To Test Self-Driving Cars In Guangzhou

WeRide, a Chinese self-driving vehicle startup, disclosed it was the first autonomous group to begin fully driverless auto trials in China on Friday, as the world's largest automotive industry is driving the production of autonomous technology.

In a media release, the three-year-old WeRide - backed by Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Renault - announced that it began testing on open roads in a designated area of Guangzhou on Wednesday after permission was granted by the southern Chinese city.

Auto groups like Didi Chuxing, the Toyota-backed Pony.ai, and Baidu Inc are also testing autonomous vehicles in the country, but all with one or two safety crew aboard. In unexpected situations, the staff onboard take control.

WeRide, with support from Nissan, will link the test cars with a 5G-enabled remote control platform which will take control of the vehicle during unusual or heavy traffic situations like in road closures or changes to road rules by authorities, the statement read.

WeRide founder and chief executive officer Tony Han disclosed that his company will pursue "fully autonomous technology in the next two to three years," Ding Yi of CaixinGlobal quoted Han as saying. WeRide claims to have registered over 2.6 million kilometers in testing in open roads using their fleet of over 100 driverless cars.

The car manufacturer's license for road trials of fully autonomous vehicles takes it a step nearer its realization of fully self-driving mobility capability, which many auto experts say will be the only mainstream solution of earning an income from autonomous technologies in the near-term.

In the United States, Alphabet Inc Waymo is also testing commercial cars without a safety driver on board. Nuro, another competing startup, has been granted permission to test self-driving delivery cars on a small scale in California.

WeRide is working on a Level 4 driverless technology which, according to standards laid down by the Society of Automotive Engineers, can deal with all facets of driving in situations with no human interaction. The group disclosed that its self-driving test fleet is comprised of 10 Lincoln MKZ sedans.

In June, WeRide bolstered the unveiling of its driverless cabs in a designation spot in Guangzhou, allowing passengers to hail self-driving rides through either Alibaba-supported app Amap or WeRide's own WeRide Go application.

China wants technologically advanced cars to account for 50 percent of all new vehicles sold locally by 2020, a blueprint of the country's top economic planner, showed. The driverless campaign is in conjunction with China's policy of setting out a goal of attaining mass production of cars with conditional driverless features by 2025.