(Yicai) March 20 -- Shanghai has launched another testing area for self-driving vehicles which includes the world’s first pilot road that uses 5G-Advanced Internet of Vehicles communications, a big step up from ordinary 5G networks, Shanghai Observer reported.

Pudong New Area opened another 205 kilometers worth of public roads for the testing of self-driving vehicles yesterday, including the globe’s first pilot road using 5G-A IOV technology in the Jinqiao Intelligent Connected Vehicles Demonstration Area, the district government said at a press briefing yesterday.

Developed by carrier China Mobile Communications Group’s Shanghai subsidiary and an assortium of partners, the end-to-end latency of 5G-A is much faster than that of 5G, at 20 milliseconds compared to 50 ms. It is able to sense traffic conditions in all weather conditions and at all times of the day, unlike the 5G network which relies on cameras.

China Mobile (Shanghai) Industrial Research Institute linked arms with telecoms giant Huawei Technologies, unmanned vehicle developer Neolix Huitong Technology, Alibaba Group Holding-backed digital traffic solutions provider Banma Network Technology, and intelligent map firm Navinfo to develop the 5G-A system.

The new test zone consists of the entire Jinqiao Economic and Technological Development Zone as well as major roads such as Shenjiang Road, Hunan Highway, and Lianggang Highway. It is the second set of public roads opened for autonomous driving testing in Pudong New Area after the first batch of 29.3 kilometers in 2022. Shanghai now has 1,003 open roads with a combined length of over 2,000 kilometers for self-driving tests.

Autonomous driving firms must first pass road testing, pilot applications and pilot operations before they can put their driverless autos into commercial operation. So far, Shanghai has given licenses for road tests, pilot applications and pilot operations to 794 vehicles from 32 companies, including the US’ General Motors which obtained a road test permit in August last year.

Editor: Kim Taylor