The Lijia intelligent connected autonomous driving project has begun demonstration operation in Liangjiang New Area, Southwest China's Chongqing municipality. Citizens can now experience the cool driverless technology by signing up through the Baidu Map application or through the WeChat public account Apollo MaaS ("度優(yōu)行" in Chinese).

The self-driving bus route starts and ends at Lijia Smart Park Station and travels through Baiyun Lake Park Station, Lici Road Station, Lijia Celestial Street North Station, Lixian Road Station, Lijia Smart Museum Station, and Yunxiao Road Station, running a total length of 6.2 kilometers. Five driverless buses operate on the route from 9:00 to 16:45 every day.

The demonstration operation signals the substantial progress made by Liangjiang in building national internet of vehicle (IoV) pilot zones. The new area plans to upgrade 400 crossroads involved in the intelligent vehicle infrastructure cooperative system and install on-board units on 10,000 cars this year, which would mean full IoV coverage in the new area.