Chongqing gives green light to unmanned vehicle road tests

CHONGQING - Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has nodded with agreement to allow road testing of unmanned vehicles, following Beijing and Shanghai.

According to a guideline on road testing of unmanned vehicles, made public Friday, automobile manufacturers are allowed to conduct road testing of unmanned vehicles on designated roads after being approved.

The guideline was jointly issued by departments including the Chongqing Municipal Economic and Information Commission, and Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau.

A test driver is required, and the automobile manufacturers and the driver will be held responsible if accidents occur, it said.

Chongqing has the largest number of automobile manufacturers and vehicle production in China.

According to Zhu Huarong, president of Chongqing-based Changan Automobile, the company will set up a demonstration zone on self-driving cars in the city this year.

According to a report by Tencent Research Institute, financing for aided or self-driving cars in China has reached 10.7 billion yuan ($1.6 billion). Mobility ranks as the third-hottest AI-related industry following vision-image analysis and voice processing.