Wuhan: an Old COVID-19 Center, the New Autonomous Driving Center
Where is Wuhan?
Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei province, is located in central China at the midstream of Yangtze River, the longest river in Asia. Specifically, it lies at the confluence of the Yangtze River and its largest tributary, hence a major transportation hub with shipping lines, railways, roads, and airlines connecting to major cities in the world.
Wuhan is sometimes referred to as “Eastern Chicago” or the “Chicago of China” given its key roles in domestic transportation. The city became widely known to the world in 2020 because COVID-19 was first identified there.
Wuhan Economy
Wuhan is considered the political, economic, cultural and educational center of central China. It has been a traditional manufacturing hub for decades and the local economy is currently built on 3 key industries: optoelectronic information, automobiles and auto parts, biopharmaceutical and medical equipment.
Speaking of auto, the first name coming to mind would be Dongfeng Motor, one of the big four stated-owned automobile companies headquartered in Wuhan. Meanwhile, many auto parts suppliers set up manufacturing plants there, such as Bosch, Webasto, Delphi, Valeo, Honeywell, and Visteon.
Building the Largest V2X Demonstration Zone
Wuhan has been determined to promote modern technologies, one of which is intelligent connected vehicles. In September 2019, Wuhan V2X Demonstration Zone was unveiled and 8 testing licenses were issued (6 to Dongfeng, 1 to Haylion and 1 to DeepBlue).
By the end of this year, the demonstration zone will be expanded with another 78 km open roads, offering a total of 106 km for AV testing. It will include municipal roads, 4th ring expressways, and urban expressways, covering a variety of scenarios such as roundabouts, intersections, bridges, underpasses, and tollgates.
Powered by 5G and the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, the demonstration zone will be hosting a V2X network with latency reduced to a few milliseconds and positioning accuracy at centimeter levels.
The plan also includes an autonomous bus line along the road and robotaxi fleets as well as application scenarios for last mile delivery, sweeping robots, and smart parking.
AV Companies Involved
In August this year, Dongfeng won an autonomous driving project from the local authority Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (WEDZ). In October, the project was officially launched. By teaming up with AutoX, DeepRoute, UISEE and Idriverplus, Dongfeng plans to deploy a fleet of at least 200 vehicles by the end of 2022 in scenarios like Robotaxi and automated valet parking. They will jointly explore the commercialization of autonomous driving technologies through Dongfeng’s ride-hailing platform DFGO.
Dongfeng is the lead investor in AutoX’s series A3 round financing and the two are working on mass production of L4 commercial vehicles. DeepRoute has created robotaxis based on Dongfeng’s electric model E70 and 6 of them are currently in test operation.
UISEE is collaborating with Dongfeng on the development of AVP features for passenger vehicles, which has been showcased during the 7th World Military Games in Wuhan last year. Idriverplus has had its eye on robotaxi ever since C1 round funding in place and joining Dongfeng’s project is probably one of the steps.
In additional to the Dongfeng-led project attracting AV companies to Wuhan, DeepBlue and Haylion have both obtained commercial licenses from local authorities and are planning to deploy autonomous buses in the city.
From public sectors like WEDZ and educational institutions to private sectors like auto OEMs and AV startups, all parties are joining hands to accelerate the region’s post-epidemic recovery taking Wuhan’s innovation to the next level.
