Self-driving buses undergo testing in Changsha

In Changsha, capital of Hunan province, a bus avoids pedestrians, speeds up, slows down, makes an emergency stop, overtakes other cars and navigates traffic lights.

Though it might look like a normal bus at first glance, and even has a driver in position for safety, the new vehicle is in fact controlled automatically along the whole route without a driver's hands ever touching the wheel or feet hitting the brake.

The bus is one of the four being tested on public city roads since December 2018, as Hunan works hard to gain a place in the nationwide race toward commercializing automatic driving. The central province is hoping to leverage local elite companies' research and development of cutting-edge transportation technologies as well as some favorable regulation policies to gain a lead.