The 2023 Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) announced the list of winners on Nov 1. 

The urban-level engineering test platform of the Beijing Municipal High-Level Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone (BJHAD) stood out from 179 city projects to win the Mobility Award of the 2023 China Awards, powered by WSCA.

SCEWC trophy won by Beijing E-Town [Photo/beijingetown.com.cn]

The SCEWC, supported by organizations such as UN-Habitat, the World Bank, and the World Economic Forum, is currently the world's largest exhibition focused on the development and transformation of smart cities and societies. 

The award selection in the China region is one of its most important activities, emphasizing dimensions such as innovation, implementation scope, and replicability, and aiming to select outstanding representatives of the development of smart city projects in China.

In September 2020, with Beijing E-Town as the core, Beijing initiated the construction of the world's first integrated high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone, which has achieved the full coverage of intelligent connected roads and a smart city private network in an area of 160 square kilometers. 

It has taken the lead in opening up commercial pilot services such as autonomous driving travel, maintaining a leading position in various aspects such as supporting policies, testing road openness, and supervision management. 

The area is stepping up the formation of an innovative and industrial ecology that is open source and open to development.

Driving test for driverless cars conducted on the open roads of Beijing E-Town [Photo/beijingetown.com.cn]

At present, 21 test car companies with more than 700 vehicles have conducted testing and exploration for commercialization in the demonstration zone, providing regular travel and life services for over 2 million people. 

Over 60 roads in the area have achieved green wave traffic, and more than 200 intersections have undergone dynamic optimization, reducing the average travel time on green wave roads on normal days by 11.6 percent.

A driverless trunk developed by TrunkTech in Beijing E-Town [Photo/beijingetown.com.cn]

This award recognizes the phased construction achievements of the demonstration zone. 

The demonstration zone was selected as one of the first six "Dual-Smart Pilot" cities by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

It was also included in several national key projects by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Transport, such as the key projects of new infrastructure and the first batch of 18 intelligent transportation leading application pilots.