A smart bus in the National Intelligent Connected Vehicle (Changsha) Testing Zone in Changsha. [Photo/icswb.com]

Four buses have been running along China's first smart bus demonstration route in the National Intelligent Connected Vehicle (Changsha) Testing Zone in Changsha city, Hunan province for two months since its launch last Dec 28.

The buses are on an open road test run in the city's Xiangjiang New Area, driving along a 7.8-kilometer route that takes about 20 minutes to finish. With the support of a 5G telecom network, the smart buses can recognize barricades 100 meters away and make a smooth stop within five milliseconds, maintaining a safe distance of at least three meters from the nearest car. The speed limit is set at 30 kilometers per hour, as the conditions of the open road are rather complicated.

A facility connected to a 5G network is placed at every 400 meters to collect driving information and send it back to the control center for regulation and debugging.

The testing zone contains plenty of different scenarios, inlcuding toll stations on the 3.6-kilometer expressway. Before beginning their pilot run, smart buses must pass strict tests on closed roads.

Intelligent buses begin trial operations in the Xiangjiang New Area, Hunan province. [Photo/icswb.com]

The zone is divided into five main functional areas and offers 228 typical scenarios for the driverless tests. It boasts the most simulation scenarios and the best performing smart vehicles in the nation.

The zone offers full 5G coverage to help vehicles react to traffic more quickly and reduce communication delays among smart buses.

The Internet cloud platform for data collection and analysis shows that there has been progress in improving the performance of driverless vehicles. The platform will be used to help intelligent buses drive safely and efficiently.

A simulation laboratory is expected to be built in the testing zone to offer customized services and more professional data analysis. Both computer simulation and semi-physical simulation of car parts will be available in the laboratory. A number of projects with commercial potential will also be carried out in the testing zone, including a 100-kilometer open city road, a 100-kilometer intelligent expressway, and an automatic parking program.

The city aims to build a completely open driving pilot zone and place intelligent vehicles on a variety of different roads extending from the local community to downtown Changsha.

A well-equipped intelligent bus station sits at the roadside in the testing zone. [Photo/icswb.com]