Tencent licensed to test driverless vehicles

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Tencent employees display the license plate issued by Shenzhen’s transport commission that allows the company to conduct open road tests for driverless vehicles in the city. The vehicles will be allowed to conduct tests on designated roads and the locations will be announced later. 

In a bid to further promote the development and commercialization of intelligent and Internet-connected vehicles, Shenzhen issued its first license to Tencent yesterday, allowing the company to conduct open road tests for driverless vehicles.

The vehicle in the Tencent Automatic Driving Lab is a refitted Haval H7 that is equipped with eight Velodyne LiDar laser radars and cameras.

The vehicles will be allowed to conduct tests on designated roads, and the locations will be announced later, according to a news conference yesterday.

“The advantage of Tencent in the driverless vehicle sector is its intelligent algorithm, high precision map, data and simulation system. To develop driverless vehicles, Tencent is cooperating with FAW Group and has invested in some Internet-based car manufacturers, such as NIO and Weltmister,” said Su Kuifeng, manager of the Tencent Automatic Driving Lab which is the research platform for core technologies of driverless driving established by Tencent in 2016.

At a ceremony yesterday, the Shenzhen transport commission, the public security bureau, Tencent and the Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning and Design Institute signed a framework agreement to develop intelligent and Internet-connected vehicles in a new industry that applies AI and ICT to the automobile industry.

The four parties will set up a joint team to promote the application of big data, and establish a data-sharing mechanism to build a new industrial ecology of driverless driving and intelligent transportation by making full use of their respective advantages in industrial management, AI and Internet technologies.

The license came after a notice dated April 12 issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Transportation on regulating the road tests of driverless vehicles.

The notice requires the application of artificial intelligence and Internet-based technologies, the promotion of upgrades and the transformation of the transportation industry.

Shenzhen is the fourth city in China to offer licenses for road tests of driverless vehicles, following Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing.

Tech giant Baidu was granted road tests for its driverless Apollo vehicles this March in Beijing.

The roads designated for testing are on the outskirts of Beijing, off the Fifth Ring Road, to avoid residential, commercial, school and hospital areas.

Shanghai will push forward road tests of driverless vehicles from enclosed areas to public roads in Jiading District by issuing two licenses to Shanghai-based SAIC Motor Corp. Ltd. and electric vehicle startup NIO.