Shanghai (ZXZC)- Today, Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport, Beijing Traffic Management Bureau, Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy jointly issued a guidance on autonomous vehicle road testing and a regulation on autonomous vehicle road testing, to encourage, support and regulate the development of autonomous vehicles and speed the commercialization of autonomous vehicles.

Two documents set specific regulations on many relevant terms, such as road testing applicant, road testing vehicles, road testing driver and even the potential traffic accident. The regulations stipulate that all independent legal entity registered in China can submit autonomous vehicle road testing application for the purposes of related scientific research, type testing which need temporary road testing. For road testing license, the applicant should make clear statement on testing vehicles, autonomous driving system and its operation, as well as offering the installation certificate of data recorder and promising to supervise the recorder. Besides, the qualified applicant should have the capacity for compensation.

Regulations also require that testing vehicles should have driving functions of common vehicles which can ensure drivers to quickly take over the operation when malfunction occurs or the vehicle gives a warning. The vehicle should have a testing range no less than the prescriptive range in closed test field approved by relevant authority department.

The drivers of testing vehicles should have driving licenses and no less than 3-year driving experience as well as no record of drunk driving or drugged driving. A sound understanding of autonomous driving system, testing vehicle’s structure and testing system is also essential.

If a traffic accident happens during the testing, the driver should immediately stop the testing. The driver will be taken as the vehicle driver who will be responsible for any traffic accident and traffic violation.

The applicant should apply for a temporary license plate for the testing vehicle within 30 days from the date of the approval. If there are changes in autonomous driving system and testing vehicles within the validity period of the temporary plate, the entity should make another new application.