On June 21st, during an event co-organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Transport entitled “Transportation in China: Meeting the Ministry of Transport”, more than 120 diplomats from foreign embassies and representatives of international organizations in China visited Shougang Park to experience autonomous driving and China’s intelligent road infrastructure.

In Shougang Park with its history of hundreds of years, many self-driving vehicles are “ready to go”. By beautiful Xiuchi Lake under a cloudless blue sky, the trees cast pleasant shade, the water ripples and the grass and flowers on the shore are fragrant, making people feel at ease. The foreign diplomats attending the event experienced autonomous driving and praised the innovation and efficiency of China’s transportation.

At present, Shougang Park is keeping pace with the times and seizing development opportunities. With the goal of building a “new landmark of capital city revival in the new era” and offering high-quality services to support the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Shougang Park focuses on the sports+, digital intelligence and cultural and creative industries, builds an international talent community and pioneers the exploration of autonomous driving, thereby promoting the development of digital intelligence. To date, the Park has reached application cooperation agreements with 11 autonomous vehicle project enterprises including BAIC, Baidu, Toyota, Tsinghua, Jingdong and Neolix, and nine types of driverless vehicles have been tested in the Park with a total test mileage of 150,000 km. Nearly 10 km of roads with V2X vehicle-road collaboration equipment have been built for autonomous driving tests in the Park; charging piles for autonomous driving have been constructed in the parking lot of the ski jump; and the design and implementation of intelligent bus stations and intelligent transportation cloud control platforms have commenced. Six models (Baidu Minibus, Toyota e-Palette, Ninebot’s smart scooter, Neolix unmanned vending machine and Jingdong unmanned logistical vehicle) from the enterprises implementing tests have been delivered to Shougang Park Comprehensive Service Co., Ltd., ready to be put into official operation and service in the Park.

Zaher Al Aridi, First Secretary and Consul at the Embassy of Lebanon in China who experienced autonomous driving for the first time, called it a “cool experience” and said, “I would advise my family and friends to try it whenever they have the chance”.

Zaher Al Aridi filmed the automatic rotation of the steering wheel. He said he was not afraid in the car because he believed that China’s high-tech development was not only developing rapidly but also safe and reliable.

Sobah Rasheed, Deputy Ambassador of the Embassy of the Maldives in China, said excitedly that autonomous vehicles based on such technologies as GPS can greatly facilitate people’s lives and improve travel safety: “China has developed practical technologies which I believe can also provide a solution to the traffic problems faced by the Maldives and other countries”.

As one of the key projects in the construction of the “Technological Winter Olympics”, Shougang Park hosts the office area of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Winter Olympic Games. It has drawn on the many high-quality resources of the Winter Olympic Games, including unmanned driving. In 2018, the autonomous driving service demonstration area of Shougang Park began trial operation. By 2020, dozens of driverless cars were “on the road” in Shougang Park. It is reported that by 2022, more than 100 driverless cars will cover the Park and serve the Winter Olympic Games. According to the plan, autonomous driving will be used to meet the daily transportation needs of the Park in the future, and a new future transportation system will be initially built.

In the future, Shougang Park will actively build more types of demonstration operation scenarios based on actual needs; gradually promote the demonstration and application of autonomous driving with occupants; promote the application of autonomous driving test roads in and around the Park; build an urban technological experimental field and incubator represented by intelligent connected vehicles; promote the concentrated development of high-precision and advanced industries; accelerate the construction of a vibrant future smart city; and create a new landmark of capital city revival in the new era.