(Yicai) July 9 -- Beijing plans to legislate to support robotaxis to enhance the innovation ability of autonomous driving, solve the issue of commercial operation of such vehicles, and provide clear and transparent institutional norms for Level 3 and above unmanned vehicle market players.

Beijing will support the use of autonomous vehicles for urban public electric bus transport, ride-hailing services, and car rentals, Beijing Daily reported yesterday, citing a draft issued by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology to solicit feedback on regulations for these cars.

According to relevant regulations, autonomous vehicles should have drivers or safety officers, who can be deployed remotely while robotaxis are in operations. In addition, traffic violations of self-driving cars should be handled and determined based on current laws and regulations. If there is a driver in the vehicle, the driver should take responsibility, and if there is no driver, the car owner and manager should be responsible.

Robotaxis are far from reaching the level of experienced human drivers based on the operation of Baidu's Apollo Go in Wuhan, said Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association. Robotaxis do not have the emotional value of humans, Cui noted, adding that they still have a long way to go to achieve large-scale socialization and commercial application.

The Beijing high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone has issued road test licenses to 31 companies, with a cumulative test range of over 28 million kilometers. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Wuhan have commercial robotaxis, but they operate in special areas.

Editor: Martin Kadiev