The 2023 National Intelligent Driving Test Competition recently concluded in the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, with 374 participating teams competing fiercely in projects such as automatic driving vehicle groups, technical support groups, vehicle-road coordination groups, and special competitions for vehicle networking safety. As an important supporting event of the World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference, and also the only national-level intelligent driving test, evaluation, and competition platform, the National Intelligent Driving Test Competition has attracted attention from both upstream and downstream of the automotive industry since its inception.
The 2023 National Intelligent Driving Test Competition officially started in April this year, and previously held competitions in the Yangtze River Delta and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regions. According to the relevant person in charge of the organizing committee, in order to create a unique “professional and authoritative competition platform” at home and abroad, this year’s competition has been upgraded. On the one hand, the expert jury of the competition is stronger, led by two academicians, and composed of 26 industry authoritative experts and scholars to conduct fair and impartial testing and evaluation of participating vehicles and technologies.
On the other hand, the content of this year’s special competitions is more detailed, and the setting of testing subjects is more scientific and reasonable. For example, the automatic driving special competition is divided into “rural and urban road section competitions” and “elevated road section competitions.” It is worth mentioning that, following the addition of the vehicle networking safety competition in 2022, this year further increased the scale and quality of participating teams, urging car companies to pay more attention to in-vehicle information security. “The final attracted 374 teams from all over the country, including 310 online teams, and nearly 50 participating vehicle models.”
The president of the Machinery Industry Branch of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Zhou Weidong, said that the participating teams in this competition come from complete vehicle enterprises, technology enterprises, and universities. The scale of the competition and the technical level of the participating teams have both refreshed records, confirming the positive trend of the development of China’s intelligent connected vehicles industry. The latest statistics from the China Academy of Information and Communications show that in 2022, a total of 13.846 million passenger cars with vehicle networking capabilities were produced in China, with an adoption rate of 67.15%.
At the same time, the production of vehicles equipped with 5G networking capabilities reached 417,400, a year-on-year increase of over 14 times. Meanwhile, various commercial applications based on intelligent connected technology are gradually being implemented. Currently, China has opened more than 15,000 kilometers of test roads for intelligent connected vehicles, and various demonstration applications such as autonomous taxis, unmanned buses, long-haul logistics, and unmanned delivery are being orderly promoted. In response to the concerns of consumers about the performance and safety of intelligent connected vehicles, various professional testing competitions have emerged.
Zhou Weidong told reporters that the national intelligent driving test competition is to explore the quantitative evaluation system of intelligent driving systems and products. In fact, as a “platform” for various technological innovation achievements, this intelligent driving test competition can urge relevant companies to pay attention to product safety and accurately and truthfully promote products through the “practical verification” of the development of intelligent driving technology.
The relevant person in charge of the organizing committee said that they hope to promote a correct understanding of intelligent driving systems to the public through this event, and to avoid unnecessary risks caused by misuse or abuse of intelligent driving systems. It is revealed that next year’s competition will further innovate and upgrade, providing a better platform and services for the technological innovation, industrial development, and social application of intelligent driving. “Only by guarding the safety red line can the smart connected car industry achieve sustainable development,” as one contestant said, the 2023 National Intelligent Driving Test has successfully concluded, but the development of intelligent driving is endless.