China's 2030 Plan to Transform Transport Network

By Micah McCartney

China News Reporter

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China is ramping up efforts to harness artificial intelligence in building a smarter, safer transportation network, in line with the government's goal of leading in the technology by the end of the decade.

Why It Matters

Transportation is set to be transformed by AI in the coming years, as rapid advances in data-driven autonomous driving, traffic control, and infrastructure management converge.

China is investing heavily in AI-driven technologies, and private firms that emerge from a crucible of intense competition are rewarded with substantial state funding. The country also benefits from strengths in autonomous technologies, big data, and electric vehicle manufacturing.

Newsweek reached out to China's Ministry of Transportation by email for comment.

What To Know

A set of guidelines issued by several government ministries in September laid out a road map with 16 target tasks across four key areas, emphasizing scalability and self-sufficiency.

To advance these goals, a Ministry of Transport-backed initiative has enlisted over 50 leading tech companies, research institutes, and universities, and has identified 860 typical AI application scenarios, according to the Chinese Communist Party newspaper, People's Daily.

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Driven by data analytics, 20 pilot zones have been trialing these innovations, with application scenarios ranging from warehouse scheduling to multimodal transport.

A "smart hub" based on a large AI model developed by tech giant Baidu has been piloted in over 10 cities and is accessible to more than 1 million vehicles equipped with Level 2 driver-assistance systems, which can handle both acceleration and steering, per People's Daily. Meanwhile, Baidu AI Cloud is providing second-level alerts for traffic anomalies along the expressway linking Beijing with Hebei Province’s Xiong'an New Area.

State-owned China Logistics Group has developed a large-scale model covering over 40 of these scenarios, spanning warehouse scheduling to multimodal transport. One Ministry of Transport official told the newspaper that these corridors cover more than 37,282 miles of highways and 4,660 miles of waterways.

“Demonstration regions across the country are applying large-model-based solutions in areas such as road network monitoring and early warning, active management of high-traffic corridors, and integrated mobility services."

The official added that traffic in these pilot areas is now roughly 20 percent more efficient, and emergency responses to unexpected incidents are 30 percent.

What People Are Saying

Wang Yunpeng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of Beihang University, was cited by People's Daily: "These scenarios span almost all segments of the transport system, offering broader opportunities for testing and deploying new technologies and products."

The Rand Corporation, a Santa Monica-based think tank, wrote in a June analysis: "Beijing promotes open-source AI platforms, datasets, and models, which it views as a way to accelerate industry progress and circumvent potential export controls on proprietary technology. This open-source approach also allows China to potentially shape AI industry standards abroad through the adoption of its low-cost, open-source offerings."

What Happens Next

According to the September government guidelines on AI-powered transportation, by 2027, AI will be widely used across “typical scenarios” in the transportation industry, and a comprehensive transportation large model system will be in place. By 2030, AI is expected to be “deeply integrated,” with China a leader in independently developed key core technologies.

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