The international expert organization DEKRA has been called upon by Chinese authorities to contribute its expertise to the potential creation of test tracks and laboratories for automated and connected commercial vehicles. The Memorandum of Understanding has now been signed in Düsseldorf, Germany.
- Possibilities will be further explored in Tianning District, Changzhou City
- Local government and national research institute are partners
- Objective: raise quality and safety level of Chinese-built vehicles
Partners of the projects are the Tianning District Government in Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, and the Intelligent Driving and Intelligent Transportation Industrial Research Institute of China’s National ITS Center. The three parties will now be exploring the possibilities of creating the necessary test infrastructure; a final decision has yet to be taken.
Tianning is one of the districts with the fastest-growing economy of Jiangsu Province. The district government is willing to provide the project with suitable land, conduct the overall planning and also to provide operation and office conditions and corresponding preferential policies and industrial support measures for the test base.
DEKRA is one of the world’s leading expert organizations and has been working for road safety for more than 90 years. “We are happy to support the project with our decades of experience in testing and inspecting vehicles”, says Clemens Klinke, Member of the Board of Management of DEKRA SE. “Automation and connectivity are key issues in tomorrow’s mobility, and ensuring that technologies are properly tested and safe when they appear on our roads is absolutely vital.”
The Intelligent Driving and Intelligent Transportation Industrial Research Institute is to be the key coordinator within the three parties and with the relevant government and administration departments. If the final decision to create the test site is taken, the institute would be responsible for the actual operation of the new institution in close cooperation with DEKRA who would contribute its international experience operating this sort of test infrastructure.