Passengers in an autonomous driving bus in Guangzhou Photo: VCG

Wuxi in East China's Jiangsu Province has unveiled the nation's first draft regulation on the development of internet of vehicles, providing comprehensive support for commercial operations of the emerging sector, local media Wuxi Daily reported on Saturday. 

The draft regulation is expected to be officially implemented from March 1, 2023. 

The draft regulation emphasizes the application of car-networking technology development in the city. Commercial operation of internet-connected vehicles and autonomous-driving vehicles will be encouraged and supported.

Relevant government departments in Wuxi will deploy internet-connected smart vehicles, including public shuttle buses, logistics transport and delivery vehicles. 

The data of internet-connected smart vehicles will be used by analysts to expand the application scenarios and improve service quality. 

In the infrastructure sector, the construction of a vehicle and road coordination system will be built, as well as monitoring mechanisms to enhance road and vehicle safety.

The draft regulation stressed the importance of data and personal information security. Generated and collected data and personal information should be stored in domestic servers in accordance with relevant laws, and if it is necessary to send such data overseas, it should go through a security review in accordance with the law.

Zhang Hui, a researcher at the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence, said that Wuxi has a strong industrial base in the car-networking and intelligent-driving sector, but relevant regulations have been largely absent, local news outlet Wuxi Daily reported. 

Wuxi is home to the Jiangsu (Wuxi) Internet of Vehicles Pilot Zone, the first national-level pilot zone in the country.

"The draft regulation was issued just in time to fill in the gap in Wuxi's intelligent-driving sector, which will provide an important guiding role in the implementation of the technology nationwide," said Zhang.

A report published by Chinese industry analysis firm iiMedia Research showed that the market value of China's autonomous-driving sector exceeded 10 billion ($1.48 billion) yuan in 2022, and it may expand to 26.76 billion yuan by the end of 2025.

Global Times