On January 14th, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission, and the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau jointly issued the "Shanghai High-Level Autonomous Driving Pioneer Zone 'Model Speed Smart Mobility' Action Plan." The plan outlines a strategy centered on "model-driven leadership, application demonstration-driven initiatives, industrial synergy development, and policy measure support" to accelerate the transformation of autonomous driving technological innovation into industrial competitiveness.
The plan specifies the construction of a batch of public service platforms, including an autonomous driving digital twin training ground. It aims to expand Shanghai's open autonomous driving zones to cover an area of 2,000 square kilometers, with road lengths exceeding 5,000 kilometers, featuring more diverse road types and scenarios to achieve cross-regional connectivity between transportation hubs, industrial technology parks, and cultural tourism attractions.
Starting with applications such as urban inspection, logistics distribution, and municipal sanitation, the initiative will create a series of innovative, technologically advanced autonomous equipment application scenarios with clear operational models and strong demonstration effects, exploring operational standards and models for unmanned delivery vehicles, unmanned inspection vehicles, and automated valet parking.
Ye Liang, Partner of Strategic and Transaction Consulting and Head of Advanced Manufacturing & Mobility (Automotive) at EY Greater China, commented that Shanghai possesses all the necessary prerequisites for promoting autonomous driving, which is conducive to validating certain application scenarios and creating a snowball effect.
Shanghai has consistently made vigorous efforts to promote the development of the autonomous driving industry. In 2022, the city released the "Shanghai Accelerated Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Development Implementation Plan"; in 2023, the Pudong New Area issued the first batch of road test licenses for driverless intelligent connected vehicles; on July 26, 2025, Shanghai officially issued the first batch of intelligent connected vehicle demonstration operation licenses, marking a new phase of normalized and scaled demonstration operations for intelligent connected vehicles in the city. The introduction of this latest action plan is also expected to provide new momentum for the industry's development.
Furthermore, the plan proposes the organized implementation of intelligent taxi demonstration operations and the initiation of pilot programs for L3-level autonomous passenger vehicles on public roads. It aims to explore innovative applications of L3-level autonomous vehicles for personal and corporate user travel scenarios, gradually expanding the scaled mass production and application of L3-level autonomous vehicles.
Aijian Securities research believes that intelligent driving is transitioning from an auxiliary function to a new stage of commercial application. Automakers with leading advantages in intelligent technology, systems engineering capabilities, and industrial chain control, along with suppliers mastering core components and systems for high-level intelligent driving, are expected to benefit first.
The development of autonomous driving relies on the synergistic support of both hardware and software, and related enterprises and patents in China's intelligent driving sector have surged. Data from Qichacha shows that as of January 14th, there are 7,767 existing intelligent driving-related enterprises in China. Regionally, East China has the highest concentration, accounting for 43.8% of the total. In terms of establishment年限, nearly half of these enterprises have been operating for over 10 years. Regarding patents, China holds 51,000 existing intelligent driving-related patents, with invention patents constituting the largest share at 85.9%.
Simultaneously, NVIDIA (NVDA.US) unveiled Alpamayo, an open-source AI model platform for autonomous driving, at CES 2026. Unlike traditional VLAs, Alpamayo, as an reasoning VLA model, possesses the ability to solve complex problems step-by-step and generate reasoning traces akin to human thought processes.
Oriental Securities stated in a research report that with the continuous expansion of NVIDIA's autonomous driving ecosystem and the gradual increase in the penetration rate of high-level autonomous driving and Robotaxi, demand for high-level autonomous driving-related components such as intelligent driving chips, LiDAR, domain controllers, and wire-controlled brake/steering systems is expected to experience rapid growth, presenting ongoing development opportunities for autonomous driving hardware and software suppliers.
Many domestic companies have made substantial progress in the L3 autonomous driving field. Multiple vehicle models from automakers including Changan, BYD, GAC, Dongfeng, SAIC, Geely, XPeng, and Li Auto have obtained road test permits. Huawei's Qiankun Intelligent Driving ADS high-speed L3 solution has begun internal testing across multiple cities and models, while concurrently building a future full-scenario service ecosystem. GAC's Hyper A800 has obtained Guangzhou's L3-level specific scenario autonomous driving road test license, becoming one of the first mass-produced vehicles in China capable of conducting L3 tests at speeds up to 120 km/h.
Bocom International points out that advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) functionalities have increasingly become a key consideration for Chinese consumers when making car purchasing decisions, with some automakers already possessing L3-level intelligent driving solutions and mass-production capabilities for L3 vehicles. The formal implementation of L3 autonomous driving regulations is expected to be a critical catalyst for industry development in 2026 and warrants close attention.
**Related Concept Stocks** **Joyson Elec (00699)**: On December 19th, Joyson Elec's subsidiary, Joyson Intelligence, formally signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Sinian Zhija. Leveraging their respective resource advantages, the two parties will engage in deep collaboration focused on L4 intelligent driving solutions for limited scenarios, embodied intelligent domain controllers, and their commercial applications. Currently, their jointly developed smart port digital management platform, based on "V2X + L4 Intelligent Driving + Intelligent Cloud Dispatch," has been deployed and is operating stably at Ningbo Port.
**SERES (09927)**: The company has successfully launched four models: the AITO M5, AITO M7, AITO M8, and AITO M9. Through differentiated positioning, it achieves market coverage, utilizing precise price gradients and scenario-based functional combinations to comprehensively target the high-end user market.
**CAOCAO INC (02643)**: In February 2025, the company's autonomous driving platform, "CAOCAO Zhixing," officially launched, marking the substantive progression of its Robotaxi business. Starting in April, deployment of a new generation of Robotaxi began; this vehicle model adopts Geely's latest redundant architecture design and deeply integrates CAOCAO Zhixing's capabilities, such as automated dispatch and remote safety assurance, to form an integrated autonomous driving operation platform.
**LEAPMOTOR (09863)**: The Leapmotor Lafa5 has officially commenced nationwide deliveries, supporting dual large AI models and a LiDAR perception system.
**HORIZONROBOT-W (09660)**: ZF and Horizon Robotics announced a joint development partnership for an L3-level intelligent driving system, expected to enter mass production in China in 2026. ZF will provide its ProAI platform and system-level architecture design, responsible for the hardware platform, vehicle integration, and safety validation; Horizon Robotics will supply the Journey 6P chip (J6P, computing power > 1,000 TOPS) and a complete software algorithm stack. This system has already secured designations from mainstream Chinese automakers and is anticipated to achieve mass production in 2026.
Comments