Several carmakers are working on manufacturing self-driving cars around the world including tech giants such as Google and Apple along with Internet firms Alibaba and Baidu. And for this very reason, China is on everyone's list, as it is unarguably, the world's largest car market. For this, it has issued its first road test license to BMW, granting permission to the German carmaker to test its self-driving vehicles in the country. The Shanghai Commission of Economy and Information Technology awarded two licenses for BMW's 7 Series sedans. The licenses would allow BMW to use a 5.6-km section of public road in Jiading District to test its self-driving cars.
(BMW 5 Series Self Driving Prototype at the CES 2017)
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BMW applied for the license to test its 7 series luxury sedans, which have completed a one-month test of AI-assisted self-driving and Internet-linked functions at the National Intelligent Connected Vehicle (Shanghai) Pilot Zone. The appraisal confirmed that the model achieved a 99-percent pass rate for the test.
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China started issuing the testing permits in March, local state-owned automaker SAIC and Chinese electric vehicle startup NIO have logged more than 6,000 kms of driving without incidents, the commission said.
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Currently, BMW has a team of 60 professionals based in Shanghai developing the self-driving technology. While still in early testing stage, no accidents involving the self-driving vehicles have occurred and the tests have not disrupted traffic in the city.
