Licenses to allow road rests for self-driving cars were granted to six enterprises on June 20 by the transport department of the city of Guangzhou, capital of southern China's Guangdong Province.

The municipal transport department said this was the first group of self-driving cars to obtain testing licenses of the city. The car companies include Chinese automaker Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. Ltd. (GAC Group) and AI-powered mobility company WeRide.

An operation center of an intelligent connected vehicle (ICV) demonstration zone was established on June 20 in the city. A total of 33 roads available for self-driving vehicle tests, with a total length of 46 km, were published on the same day.

Guangzhou issued a guideline on ICV road test in December 2018, encouraging and supporting ICV enterprises to carry out road testing.

China allowed local governments to arrange road tests for ICVs, which cover different degrees of autonomous driving, in April 2018. An increasing number of cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing, have issued car plates for road tests of ICVs.