The legislative guarantee will be welcomed when autonomous vehicle are put on the road in Beijing. Recently, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology solicited opinions on the Regulations of autonomous vehicle in Beijing (Draft for Comments) (hereinafter referred to as the Draft for Comments). Beijing plans to support the use of autonomous vehicle for urban public bus passenger transport, online car hailing, car rental and other urban travel services. "In the past 10 years, China's autonomous driving industry has experienced leapfrog development and has now entered the eve of large-scale commercialization. It urgently requires legislative regulation, guidance, and support." Zhang Fan, partner of Deji Advanced Manufacturing and Transportation Industry, said. In September 2020, Beijing took the lead in planning and constructing the country's first high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone, focusing on the five elements of "vehicle road cloud network map", to carry out key technology verification of the "vehicle road cloud integration" system. "At present, the Beijing High Level Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone has issued road testing licenses to 31 testing vehicle companies, with autonomous driving testing mileage exceeding 28 million kilometers." According to the relevant person in charge of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, in order to further enhance the technological innovation capability of autonomous vehicle in Beijing and focus on solving the problems of commercial operation of autonomous vehicle, it is necessary to give full play to the implementation, complementarity and exploratory role of local legislation, provide a management framework with both certainty and openness for carrying out autonomous vehicle innovation activities, and provide a strong legal guarantee for promoting high-quality development of autonomous vehicle industry. The draft proposed that autonomous vehicle that comply with the relevant provisions of the state and Beijing can carry out road testing, demonstration applications, demonstration operations, road transport service pilot and other innovative activities in accordance with the principle of ensuring safety and gradual progress. The draft has set a wealth of application scenarios for autonomous vehicle, supporting autonomous vehicle to be used in the following scenarios: urban bus passenger transport, taxi passenger transport (online car hailing), car rental and other urban travel services; Road freight transportation other than dangerous goods transportation; Urban operation guarantees such as ferry connections, environmental sanitation cleaning, and public security patrols; Other application scenarios supported by the state and Beijing city. Wen Yuanzhixing believed that the draft proposed that "the city should strengthen collaborative innovation and promote policy mutual recognition with autonomous vehicle", "support the comprehensive opening of intelligent roadside infrastructure in the region, and open it in stages and according to the key application scenarios of regional opening", "relevant municipal competent departments can combine the results of innovation activities in different places and simplify the procedures according to relevant regulations", which laid a good foundation for the subsequent mutual recognition of autonomous vehicle in different places and models, large-scale landing, and commercial application. Clarify the accident responsibility and determine whether autonomous vehicle need to be equipped with safety officers? According to a reporter from Securities Daily, autonomous taxis in the Beijing Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone have begun unmanned testing, and safety officers are gradually transitioning from the driver's seat to the passenger seat, rear seat, and remote outside the vehicle. The draft clearly stated that autonomous vehicle should be used to carry out innovation activities, and drivers or (remote) safety officers should be allocated according to relevant national regulations. This means that the safety officer of autonomous vehicle can operate remotely. The reporter learned from Xiaoma Zhixing that the driver or the remote security officer will monitor the running state of the autonomous vehicle and the surrounding environment. If the autonomous vehicle is found in a state that is not suitable for automatic driving or the system prompts that manual takeover is required, take over the autonomous vehicle in time and take necessary safety measures. In addition, violations of autonomous driving and accident handling have received much attention. The draft proposed that the public security and traffic management departments should deal with and identify the traffic violations during the driving of autonomous vehicle in accordance with the existing laws and regulations. If there is a driver inside the car, the driver shall be dealt with in accordance with the law; If there is no driver inside the vehicle, the owner and manager of the vehicle shall be dealt with. If a autonomous vehicle breaks down or a traffic accident occurs, and there is a driver in the car, the injured shall be rescued immediately and the police shall be called promptly. If there is no driver inside the car, the remote safety officer should immediately report to the police. If a road traffic accident occurs when the auto drive system function is not activated, the vehicle shall bear the responsibility according to the current provisions; If a road traffic accident occurs in the activated state and causes casualties and property losses, the owner and manager of the autonomous vehicle shall be liable for compensation if the party is responsible for the accident. In an interview with the Securities Daily, the relevant person in charge of Xiaoma Zhixing said that this draft clearly defined various application scenarios of autonomous vehicle, relevant traffic violations handling and accident liability identification rules, facilitation management measures and prudential and inclusive regulatory principles, and provided a clear, transparent and predictable system specification for autonomous vehicle market players of L3 and above. It is reported that Beijing plans to regularly evaluate the overall situation of autonomous vehicle innovation activities every year, form an annual report and disclose it to the public. The annual report includes the implementation of innovative measures related to autonomous vehicle, the impact on road traffic efficiency, public travel modes, the automobile industry and the development of innovative technology, good practical experience and shortcomings. (Lai Xin She)