An impressive panorama of Yangquan city [Photo/Yangquan Daily]

Yangquan in North China's Shanxi province has been moving forwards with its transition to become a city for the intelligent vehicles industry and autonomous driving. 

The city, one of the birthplaces of Shanxi's modern industry due to the abundance of coal, once encountered many difficulties with the rise and fall of the coal market through decades of development.

"On the one hand, we must promote the intelligent and green transformation of the traditional coal power industry; on the other hand, we must accelerate the realization of green and low-carbon transformation in this resource-based city by developing new economic engines including the digital economy," said Lei Jiankun, Party secretary of Yangquan.

Tech giant Baidu is now authorized to provide commercial robotaxi services in Yangquan, starting this Sunday. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Yangquan has made every effort to promote this transformation. As a result, it is now a pilot city in Shanxi for comprehensive energy reform, China's first city to carry out autonomous driving in all of its administrative areas, and a State-supported pilot city for intelligent internet of things applications.

It has issued a three-year action plan for the priority development of its digital economy, in which building a city for the intelligent vehicles industry is proposed. 

An unmanned autonomous commercial vehicle serves a young gent in Yangquan. [Photo/Yangquan Evening News]

The city's advanced development positioning and open attitude have attracted projects such as Baidu Apollo's autonomous driving and paid robotaxi services, and Neolix Technologies Co's 5G-based unmanned vehicles, bringing Yangquan ever closer to its goal of being a city of intelligent vehicles. 

The Baidu Apollo Park built by Chinese internet giant Baidu Inc started operating in the city on Feb 25, effectively providing operational guarantees for Yangquan's multi-scenario autonomous driving services. Ten Luobo Kuaipao autonomous cars have carried out commercial robotaxi services covering 30 stations in the city. 

Moving forwards, plans are for Yangquan to roll out more types of autonomous vehicles, including buses, retail vehicles and security vehicles. It will move to establish a new-generation intelligent transport system, and explore future travel and urban traffic operations modes.