Pingtan, a coastal gem in Fujian Province and the mainland's closest point to the island of Taiwan, stands as a key pilot zone for cross-Straits integration and China's second international tourism island after Hainan. It is also emerging as a hub for cutting-edge tech trials, with its latest showcase being a high-stakes autonomous driving competition. 

On July 27, 2025, the "Straits Smart Mobility·Pingtan Island Navigation" Autonomous Driving Challenge—the centerpiece of the 2025 Pingtan International Motorsport Carnival—raced into action at the Pingtan Ruyi Lake International Urban Circuit. Unlike traditional speed-focused races, this event put 8 top-tier Chinese autonomous driving teams to the test in scenarios mirroring real-world urban driving.

The challenge zeroed in on 15 extreme scenarios designed to replicate tricky urban conditions: from simulating rain and fog to navigating unmarked intersections and avoiding sudden obstacles. Behind the scenes, the circuit's advanced "vehicle-road-cloud integration" infrastructure—featuring a mix of cameras, radar systems, and multi-access edge computing (MEC) technology—created hyper-realistic, complex environments to stress-test the teams' technologies.

When the dust settled, Xiamen Golden Dragon Bus Co., Ltd. took first place, followed by QCraft (Jinhua) Technology Co., Ltd. in second and Beijing DHC Technology Co., Ltd. in third.

Yan Jie, project manager at QCraft (Jinhua), highlighted the event's practical value. "This challenge gives us a great opportunity to explore deeper collaboration in Pingtan," he said. "Our goal is to apply our leading autonomous driving technologies here to serve residents' smart mobility needs."

He Haidong, technical director at Tsinghua University-Beijing Tianjin Hebei Range (Langfang) Digital Information Co. Ltd. Joint Institute for Intelligent Society and one of Fujian's first AI experts, praised the competition's outcomes. "We've achieved three key breakthroughs," he noted. "First, we've field-tested China's 'vehicle-road-cloud collaboration' blueprint for smart connected vehicles. Second, we've introduced a quantitative evaluation system that sets a core benchmark for urban autonomous driving, speeding up industry standards. Third, the participating teams' solutions are closely aligned with public needs, boosting the industry ecosystem."

The event marks a solid step forward in Pingtan's layout of the intelligent connected vehicle industry, providing an important practice and exchange platform for autonomous driving technology to move from R&D and testing to large-scale commercial application.