Mobility Innovators

China Intelligent Transportation Industry Alliance (CITIA) and Baidu, in collaboration with, other industry partners released Association Standards on Autonomous Buses on 10 January 2022 as industry-wide standards to achieve L4 autonomous driving.

Transport Canada also released Guidelines for Testing Automated Driving Systems in August 2021. However, the standards released by CITIA are led by the industry members and will help to accelerate the manufacturing sector in China.

This series of standards includes two parts – Part 1 (Operation) and Part 2 (Capability Test), which mainly regulate the basic safety of autonomous buses in vehicles, information security, operational security, autonomous driving capability testing, and other technical requirements.

Autonomous Bus Part 1: Technical Requirements for Vehicle Operation

Part 1 aims to escort the operation of L4-class buses, and strive to realize the safety and efficiency upgrades of the passenger-carrying services of autonomous buses. The guidelines are small, medium, and large buses with Level 4 and Level 5 driving automation capabilities that provide passenger-carrying operations.

Key points are as follows:

• The maximum design speed of the vehicle shall not be greater than 70 km/h and not less than 20 km/h.
• The vehicle shall be equipped with in-vehicle monitoring equipment.
• The vehicle should have the ability to display the signal light information ahead to other road users.
• Vehicles should have the ability to receive or send V2X messages, such as traffic information, weather information, etc.
• The vehicle should have remote control capability.
• The autonomous driving vehicle terminal can resist cryptanalysis attacks and other attacks.
• An independent two-way authentication mechanism shall be supported above the cellular mobile communication network layer.
• In-vehicle communication data shall be encrypted.

Autonomous Bus Part 2: Automated Driving Capability Test Methods and Requirements

Part 2 is for Autonomous Driving Ability” puts forward clear test requirements and methods for the driving automation ability of self-driving buses, and realizes comprehensive verification of vehicle driving automation ability through a complete combination of site and road tests.

The key points are as follows:

• The self-driving bus shall pass the self-driving capability evaluation of the following scenarios – Recognition and Response of Traffic Signs and Markings, Traffic Light Recognition and Response, Tunnel, Roundabout, Crossroads, Obstacle, Vulnerable traffic participants and vehicle interactions, Bus lane, Remote control and Pit shop.
• For each scenario, the clear test method and passion requirements are mentioned.
• The speed control accuracy of the target vehicle should be ± 2 km/h.
• The resolution of the video capture device should not be less than (1920×1080) pixels.

The members of the alliance include:

• Baidu
• Institute of Information and Communications Technology
• Shenzhilian Innovation Center
• Tongji University
• Saimu Technology
• Xiamen Jinlong
• Hunan Xiangjiang Intelligence
• ZTE
• Geely