Autonomous driving test vehicle. Credit: BMW Group.

BMW Group has secured an autonomous driving road test licence in Shanghai, China, to support the development of its self-driving systems.

The Shanghai Intelligent Connected Autonomous Driving Test Licence was issued by the Intelligent Connected Vehicle Road Test Promotion Team.

It comprises Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau and Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission.

BMW noted that Shanghai fulfils its requirement to carry out road tests as a step for the development of Level 4 (L4) Autonomous Driving R&D in China.

The company has already set up a team in Shanghai comprising more than 60 experts in autonomous driving.

The licence will enable BMW R&D team to procure huge amounts of data based on actual traffic, including all real-life complexity.

“It is a great honour to be the first international vehicle manufacturer to obtain an autonomous road test licence in China.”

This data will be utilised to design machine learning algorithms to carry out L4 autonomous driving behaviour.

BMW China Services R&D Center BMW Group senior vice-president Dr Martin Sautter said: “We have developed a complete, customer-oriented and prospective R&D system, through the R&D layout in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang.

“Now, it is a great honour to be the first international vehicle manufacturer to obtain an autonomous road test licence in China.

“With the highest safety standards, we will rigorously promote the local development of autonomous driving and strive to achieve a safer, more efficient and more convenient transportation system.”

Shanghai’s test sites currently comprise a total length of about 5.6km and are expected to increase over time.

The test fleet includes the latest BMW 7 Series models. Initially, two vehicles will be introduced for testing with plans to increase by adding up to seven vehicles by December this year.