Mogo Auto Takes Lead in Commercialization of China Autonomous Driving Technology

An intelligent transportation project with investment of 500 million yuan
(nearly $80 million) is now being carried out in Hengyang City, Hunan
Province, the hinterland of China. Mogo Auto Intelligence and Telemetics
Information Technology Co., Ltd., an autonomous driving tech start-up
headquartered in Beijing, is in charge of the project. Local media reports
that “the company will provide a one-stop solution covering intelligent road
construction, self-driving vehicle upgrade and smart city transportation
platform operation in cloud management.” Hengyang City is one of China’s
transportation hubs with multiple major highways and railways crossing
there.

This could be the world’s largest autonomous driving project. With a
designed mileage of 200 kilometers, it has been the largest one among all
L4-level autonomous driving projects released worldwide. There will be a
38-kilometer-long intelligent road deployed and put into use in September
during the first phase of the project, according to the company’s press
release. By then, there will be about 500 self-driving vehicles on city
streets including robobuses, robotaxis, self-driving shuttle buses and other
public service vehicles providing fire-fighting, street sweeping,
distributing and emergency medical services.

Differing from previous ones, Hengyang project contains much more complex
traffic conditions. Self-driving vehicles will be deployed to real city
roads involving main streets, city center area, tunnels, flyovers, rural
roads without road surface marks and the like. Mogo Auto says that it will
provide a Smart City Transportation Brain for real-time monitoring and
overall scheduling, so as to match citizens’ transportation demands
efficiently. This could also dramatically reduce traffic accidents or jams.

The project is a new case of China’s high-tech company taking lead in
cutting-edge science and technologies worldwide. Mogo Auto official website
shows the company was founded in 2017 as a world-leading full-stack
autonomous driving technology and operating service provider. It has been
testing and operating self-driving vehicle fleets in Beijing, Jiangsu, Hunan
Province and other regions.

Mogo Auto claims that it has a better profit model with Hengyang Project as
evidence. Mogo Auto could at least get profits from intelligent
transportation infrastructure construction, self-driving vehicle fleets
upgrading, selling and operating.