China sets principles for its autonomous driving industry

China “encourages exploration, tolerates failure, ensures safety, and opposes monopoly” when it comes to developing its autonomous driving industry, said China’s Minister of Transport Li Xiaopeng at a press conference held Thursday.

The ministry has allowed Beijing, Chongqing and Xi’an to build closed testing grounds for autonomous driving.

Last year, China issued a guideline to regulate road tests for autonomous vehicles and another on the development of closed testing grounds.

Currently, Chinese tech companies, with Baidu as a pioneer and automakers including Volkswagen and domestic Geely and Changan are all working on developing self-driving vehicles.