The Ministry of Public Security issued a call for public comments on the "Road Traffic Safety Law (Revised Draft)" on March 24.

The new law clarifies requirements for road testing and traffic, as well as regulations on sharing responsibility for violations and accidents.

Self-driving Apollo developed by Baidu [kfqgw.beijing.gov.cn]

This has given legal status to automated driving systems and road testing, and established a legal environment for the large-scale commercial use of automated driving.

In terms of the autonomous driving test environment, Article 155 of the new law requires that vehicles with autonomous driving functions should be tested successfully on closed roads and venues, obtain temporary driving license plates at the designated time, area, and route, and comply with regulations.

As regards the automated driving test process, the law demands that a car with automatic driving function and manual direct operation mode should record driving data in real time when carrying out road tests or driving on the road; the driver should sit on the driving seat of the vehicle, monitor the status of the vehicle and the surrounding environment, and be ready to take over the vehicle at any time.

The drafted law boosts the confidence of the autonomous driving industry, points out directions for autonomous driving system R&D companies, upstream and downstream supporting parts R&D companies, and test environment operation institutions. It will also accelerate the construction of high-level autonomous driving demonstration zones.

The 1.0 stage construction of the high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone will soon be completed, at which time the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area will usher in the 2.0 construction stage, with intelligent networked infrastructure fully provided in the area.