Hangzhou city, where Internet giant Alibaba is headquartered, plans to open an autonomous test driving road, following similar actions in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, The Paper reported.
The test track is a 1.6-kilometre-long, 21-meter-wide, L-shaped road under construction near the Hangzhou Future Science Town.
By setting up the high-tech course for the development of autonomous cars, the city aims to build an artificial intelligence community to attract enterprises to settle in.
Earlier this month, Shanghai launched the nation’s first intelligent road test lane, while Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are speeding up their efforts.
Noticeably, the distance from the test road to Alibaba‘s Xixi Campus is only 1.4 kilometers. Following its official opening, it is expected that Alibaba’s autonomous driving research team may be formally unveiled.
It is also reported that Alibaba has launched its autonomous unit in-house and it is being managed by AI Labs.