Self-driving buses soon to be part of our lives

The intelligent networked passenger bus company ushered in good news on Mar 31: They can conduct road tests within 60 square kilometers of the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area (BDA).

To support and encourage the testing and demonstration of intelligent networked passenger buses in the Beijing High-level Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone, the zone released a set of rules to manage such road tests on Mar 31.

In addition to stipulating that each vehicle should be equipped with one personnel to ensure the safety of the vehicle, an in-vehicle administrator should also be equipped to manage the order in the vehicle and be responsible for safety inspection and security.

The applicant is required to carry out road tests and demonstrations in accordance with the routes, stations, operation intervals, first and last shifts, and the number of vehicles specified in the advance area.

Currently, eight intelligent networked passenger buses from three companies -- Baidu, QCraft, and SenseTime -- plan to apply for testing.

After the test licenses are issued, the eight buses will officially start road tests.