China’s Autonomous Driving Push in 17 Cities as Baidu Apollo Go Prepares for Korea

China’s autonomous driving industry is growing rapidly on the back of national test demonstration zones in 17 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Wuhan. As data that determines artificial intelligence performance becomes a core factor in autonomous driving competitiveness, Baidu’s Apollo Go, a leading Chinese robotaxi service with extensive real-world driving experience, is preparing to enter South Korea. In Shanghai alone, as of early this year, 41 companies were testing 932 autonomous vehicles. Their cumulative mileage reached 34.55 million km, with operating time of about 1.88 million hours. China presented a roadmap for autonomous driving technology in 2015 through the “Made in China 2025” policy, and in 2017 the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology drafted an autonomous driving standards framework. In 2024, China also promoted autonomous driving projects by a consortium of nine automakers, including BYD, across 17 cities. South Korea faces a data gap not only with the United States but also with China. Source: rss.donga.com