Shanghai promotes AI-powered transportation with more roads opened for autonomous driving tests

Shanghai has opened up more roads to conduct autonomous driving tests as part of the city's latest efforts to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) across key industries and public services, officials said on Sunday.

With the latest additions, Shanghai now boasts more than 3,170 roads for unmanned driving tests to be conducted, with a total length exceeding 5,200 kilometers, covering about one-third of the city's urban areas, authorities announced at the "Artificial Intelligence + Transportation" Shanghai Release 2025 event held Sunday.

So far, over 900 vehicles developed by 40 companies in Shanghai have obtained licenses to complete road tests, application demonstrations, and autonomous driving operations, with the total combined test mileage exceeding 32 million kilometers and the overall test duration exceeding 1.78 million hours.

Sunday's event also saw the launch of the nation's first service platform for open access and application management of traffic signal data across a megacity. The platform provides real-time data collection from more than 7,600 intersections, helping strengthen research and development which will boost mass production of advanced autonomous driving technologies.

Several major initiatives were also unveiled at the gathering, including the first group of demonstration scenarios innovatively integrating AI with the transportation sector.

Among the pioneering projects is a brand new AI pilot base built by the Shentong Metro Group – the operator of trains on Shanghai's underground system.

This will see the development of China's first multimodal body of data collected across the urban rail transit system, which will independently train vertical large language models and conduct comprehensive and efficient checks for procedures such as signal systems and intelligent security checks before they are officially launched.

"The base will enable test, verification and optimization of systems prior to their formal operation. In the past, our approach was to conduct a review after the initial development was completed and then deploy it for operation. This made it impossible to anticipate problems that would arise," said Wang Shenghua, deputy director of the chief engineer's office under the Shentong Metro Group.

Industry insiders say that these efforts to deepen the application of AI in the transportation sector highlight how this emerging technology is being further integrated across more industries and playing a more prominent role in people's everyday lives.

"Today, [AI] has been specifically integrated with various scenarios, truly and closely connecting with the government's administration, the operation of companies, and the everyday experiences of people in their daily lives," said Zhong Junhao, secretary general of the Shanghai AI Industry Association.

Shanghai promotes AI-powered transportation with more roads opened for autonomous driving tests

Neil Bush, founder and chair of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations, has hailed the warming of China-U.S. relations and highlighted the enduring resilience of China's economy.

Bush spoke on the sidelines of the 2025 International Symposium on the Peaceful Use of Space Technology – Health (IPSPACE 2025) in Boao, a coastal town in China's island province of Hainan. He pointed to the recent meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, as a key step toward improving bilateral ties, despite persistent trade tensions.

"I think it's improving. It's reached a kind of an all-time low recently. But the fact that the presidents met and there's been more exchanges, there's been, I think a better understanding established, and you can see signs from Washington that there's an easing of tensions, which I'm very, very happy to see. I still think that there are going to be challenges with our bilateral trade relationship. I'm concerned that our government believes that tariffs are going to help America create jobs and create wealth in America. And I think that's a false thesis for an economic policy. So I'm concerned there may not be much negotiating on the issue of tariffs. Otherwise, the bilateral relationship seems to be warming and improving, which I'm very happy about," said Bush.

Bush also praised China's economic progress and its leading role in shaping an AI-driven future.

"You can never count China out. There have been many, many projections over the past 20 to 30 years of China's demise. 'Experts' predicted that China is going to go down. The reality is China is very resilient, and there's so much activity going on here. We're at an IP space conference. There's a lot of discussion about innovation and finance and capital and all the new technologies that fall out of AI's development. There's a lot going on, not just in China, but clearly China is playing a critical role in building the new economy, the transition economy from kind of the old way to the AI-driven way," said Bush.

Bush also highlighted the benefits that China's economic development has brought to improving people's livelihoods.

"China's resilient. China's economy, hopefully, will continue to grow. I happen to believe that as economies grow, people benefit and the role of government should be to provide benefits to its people. So our American capitalist system has worked in America to make us a very strong country where people are enjoying all kinds of benefits from wealth. China, likewise, the people of China are benefiting from economics. So I applaud the economic development in China, which is helping to improve the life of more and more millions of people," he said.

Bush China Foundation chair hails improvement in China-US ties