Shanghai (ZXZC)- Changan Automobile (Changan) plans to mass produce its own autonomous vehicles in 2020, according to Luo Minggang, vice general-manager of Changan.

As early as April 2016, the automaker completed a 2000km autonomous trip from Chongqing to Beijing, at a maximum speed of 120km/h. This is China's first long-distance autonomous driving test. 

In July last year, the company showcased its automatic parking technology with L3 autonomous driving function at CS55 release show in Hangzhou. Drivers are able to control their vehicles using apps in mobile phones to achieve self-steering, road mapping, automatic parking-lot searching as well as automatic parking. The vehicles carrying this technology are expected to be mass produced in 2022.

According to Luo Minggang, vehicle intelligentization will trigger a series of transformation and upgrading in auto industry.

Since autonomous driving system can work instead of human operation, people will be released from sitting behind the steering wheel all the time. Meanwhile, the evolvement of intelligent vehicles will promote the construction of smart cities.

Chinese government also seeks cooperation with relevant enterprises to achieve the intelligent vehicle progress. For example, the government of Chongqing Municipality signed a strategic cooperative agreement with Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce titan, to provide better intelligent transportation conditions for the intelligent vehicle growth in Chongqing.

Besides, Changan Automobile has opened a research center in Detroit and an innovation base in Silicon Valley to accelerate its intelligent driving development. The company also has partnerships with Baidu, Huawei, NEXTEV, Intel, Tencent, and NXP.

In the next 10 years, the automaker plans to invest around RMB 21 billion in R&D of intelligent vehicle technologies and products.

Luo also stated that the relevant supporting policies need be improved along with the technology development. Some automakers, including Changan Automobile, plans to mass produce autonomous vehicles with L3 functions by the end of 2020. However, the relevant supporting laws and regulations have not come out yet. In addition, he suggested that government can give backing of investment and infrastructure by setting up intelligent vehicle projects and establishing industrial demonstration zone.