China making headway in intelligent connected vehicle development

China has made significant advancements in the development of intelligent connected vehicles, according to expert at the 2024 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles (ICV) Conference.

At the opening ceremony of the conference on Thursday, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Jin Zhuanglong said that China has established a complete ICV industrial system covering foundational chips, sensors, computing platforms, chassis control and internet-based cloud control.

He said that China's technologies like human-machine interaction are in a leading position globally, while breakthroughs in steer-by-wire and active suspension systems are gathering pace.

"Infrastructure development is speeding up. Over 50 cities nationwide are conducting road testing demonstrations for ICVs, with 32,000 kilometers of testing roads opened and approximately 10,000 kilometers of roads undergoing intelligent upgrades, along with the installation of over 8,700 roadside units," said Jin.

He also emphasized that China has nurtured nearly 400 "little giant" enterprises that apply special and sophisticated technologies to produce unique and novel products in the ICV sector, with five lidar companies ranking in the global top 10.

Furthermore, international cooperation continues to deepen, as China has cooperated with Europe, Japan, and the United States to develop multiple regulations for autonomous driving, he said.

Jin said that advancements in computing power, big data and large models are expected to lead to significant breakthroughs in advanced autonomous driving technology, ushering in a new development stage for ICVs.

Jin outlined four areas to promote the industry's new development. First, in integrated innovation, the country will focus on next-generation electronic and electrical architecture, high-performance chips, domain controllers and super-intelligent systems to foster integration among vehicles, smart grids, intelligent transportation and smart cities.

Second, China will expand application scenarios with pilot projects for integrated vehicle-road-cloud computing applications in logistics, public transport, taxis and environmental sanitation, he said.

"Third, we will improve standards and regulations, revising traffic safety and insurance laws, establishing and improving a regulatory framework for high-level autonomous driving and accelerating the formulation of standards for functional safety, cybersecurity, and data security," he said.

Jin said that within the framework of the International Organization for Standardization, China will also strengthen cooperation on standards and regulations with various countries, and explore policies to facilitate cross-border data flow.

China making headway in intelligent connected vehicle development

A team of Chinese ocean engineers has been tracking data on natural resources in relevant areas of the South China Sea throughout the year to support work including ecological early warning, marine observation and forecasting, and disaster prevention and mitigation.

The engineers at the Sansha Marine Center under the Ministry of Natural Resources said they had observed various shades of blue in the South China Sea, which reveal rich information about weather, marine life, and seabed topography.

While enjoying the vitality and diversity deep under the waves, they also perceived the sensitivity and vulnerability of the ecosystems.

Bai Chenghua, one of the team members, participated in coral reef investigations at Xianbin Jiao, Ren'ai Jiao, and Tiexian Jiao in the South China Sea, and documented different situations of the coral reef ecosystems under China's protection and amid destruction by the foreign side.

"I carry out my daily work with a sense of patriotism. Each time we conduct an investigation here, it is a declaration of China's sovereignty over this sea area. Combining my work experience and knowledge, I feel quite proud to be able to make a contribution to upholding China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests," said Bai.

"By obtaining natural resources data with the highest possible precision, we have been safeguarding China's territory in our own way," said Liu Taorong, another engineer of the team.

The team has collected samples of over 400 fish species and 300 shellfish species from the South China Sea and compiled the findings into books.

Chinese ocean engineers track data on natural resources in South China Sea