Changan Automobile officially announced that it has received approval for a Level 4, L4 Robotaxi testing license in Chongqing. According to the official teaser poster, Changan Automobile’s self-developed Robotaxi will be equipped with the TianShu intelligent solution.
Robotaxi generally refers to autonomous taxis. It is a vehicle based on autonomous driving technology that can provide taxi services to the public. In China, Baidu, WeRide, Didi, AutoX, Pony.ai, and XPeng are all developing Robotaxi services. Changan Automobile’s official announcement of obtaining a testing license for Robotaxi indicates that it is also developing this business.
For reference, in September last year, Changan Automobile officially announced its independently developed end-to-end interactive navigation assistance system, “Tianshu Intelligent Driving Assistance”. It mainly introduces core technologies such as “end-to-end interactive navigation assistance, multi-modal AI large model, distributed electric drive, and drive-by-wire chassis” in three aspects: driving assistance, cockpit, and chassis. It realizes “distributed electric drive four-wheel independent control”, supports drive/braking response time as low as 10ms, reduces the risk of loss of control on slippery roads by 76%, actively stabilizes the direction in the instant of tire blowout, and corrects the trajectory within 0.1 seconds.
It is worth mentioning that on December 15 last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also officially announced the first batch of L3 conditional autonomous driving vehicle access permits in my country. Two models, adapted to urban congestion and highway sections respectively, will be piloted on designated areas in Beijing and Chongqing, marking a key step for my country’s L3 autonomous driving from the testing stage to commercial application.
On December 20 last year, the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau Traffic Management Corps officially granted Changan Automobile the first L3-level autonomous driving license plate in China, “Yu AD0001Z”, marking a new stage for China’s autonomous driving industry from technology verification to compliant commercial use.
