Building a sustainable transportation system that is safe, convenient, efficient, green, economical, inclusive, and resilient is an important measure to support and serve high-quality economic and social development, and to realize the beautiful vision of "people enjoying their travel and goods flowing smoothly." Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, technological innovation in the transportation field has driven development, the level of green and low-carbon development has steadily increased, and the low-altitude economy has grown rapidly, continuously adding new momentum to sustainable transportation development.

Effective Expansion of New Technology Applications

The Global Sustainable Transportation Summit (2024) was recently held in Beijing, with representatives from government departments, enterprises, and academia from different countries offering suggestions for sustainable transportation development. Song Zhiyong, the Director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, stated at the forum that new-generation information technology is having a revolutionary impact on the modernization process of global transportation and is profoundly changing people's travel methods. "Our country has promoted breakthroughs in key technologies such as autonomous driving, intelligent traffic management, smart logistics, and smart construction."

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The "China Sustainable Transportation Development Report 2023" shows that with the effective expansion of new technology applications, the level of intelligence of transportation equipment in our country has increased. The development of the CR450 high-speed train has achieved phased results, and the first domestically built large cruise ship has been officially delivered. The domestically developed civil aircraft C919 has officially entered commercial operation, and the ARJ21 has achieved scaled operation.

At present, our country has achieved centimeter-level precise positioning for autonomous driving technology vehicles. The first domestically built autonomous navigation container merchant ship, "Zhi Fei," has conducted a 27,000 nautical mile trial run. Intelligent facilities and equipment such as cable-climbing robots and intelligent road detection vehicles have been applied in the field of smart construction. Intelligent traffic management technology has achieved real-time monitoring of transportation networks, optimizing traffic flow and improving transportation efficiency.

"Artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing have great potential in the application of civil aviation," said Wu Rongxin, Deputy General Manager of China Southern Airlines Group Co., Ltd. For example, through artificial intelligence and big data, intelligent planning of routes can be achieved, and flight paths can be optimized, effectively shortening flight times and ultimately achieving energy-saving and emission reduction effects.

Zhang Jun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Secretary of the Party Committee of Beijing Institute of Technology, believes that the overall trend of transportation industry development is intelligent transportation. It is necessary to establish a future transportation system characterized by digital perception, ubiquitous interconnection, and intelligent services by integrating new-generation information technology, to better create a safe, convenient, efficient, green, and economical sustainable transportation.

Wang Ning, Deputy Director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transportation, introduced that in terms of perceptibility in the transportation field, Beijing has implemented a comprehensive coding of transportation QR codes, forming "one set of codes, one cloud, and one network." By using data for dispatching and monitoring public transportation, it helps public transportation run smoothly. At the same time, data is shared and opened to the public, helping the public plan their trips.

Orderly Promotion of Green and Low-Carbon Transformation

"At present, China's transportation industry is implementing the 'dual carbon' strategy, actively promoting the integrated development of transportation and energy, strengthening planning and policy coordination, improving the standard and specification system, innovating key technologies and equipment, accelerating the development and utilization of new energy along transportation infrastructure, promoting the new energy substitution of transportation vehicles, improving the new energy supply system for transportation, and orderly promoting the green and low-carbon transformation of the transportation industry." Fei Dongbin, a member of the Party Group of the Ministry of Transport of China, Secretary of the Party Group of the National Railway Administration, and Director of the National Railway Administration, stated.In recent years, China has made positive progress in the green and low-carbon transformation of its transportation sector. By the end of 2023, the number of new energy vehicles in China exceeded 20.4 million, and nearly 8.6 million charging infrastructures have been built. In the railway sector, the electrification rate of national railways has reached 73.8%.

China is promoting the green and low-carbon transformation of transportation by advancing the construction of green transportation infrastructure. As the world's first "smart zero-carbon" terminal, the intelligent container terminal at the North Port Area C section of Tianjin Port officially started operation in 2021. At the zero-carbon terminal site, reporters saw unmanned artificial intelligence transport robots carrying containers driving smoothly and orderly in the area. The person in charge of Tianjin Port introduced that the kinetic energy of these robots all comes from the terminal's "green electricity". Currently, the zero-carbon terminal has 5 wind turbines and 16,000 square meters of photovoltaic panels.

"At present, the depth and breadth of the integration of new energy and transportation in China are still expanding, and the task of driving sustainable transportation with green energy is still arduous," said Lu Junling, the chief economist of the National Energy Administration. The integration of transportation and energy should focus on the innovation and攻关 of key technologies, and carry out technical攻关 in key demand directions such as long-range power batteries, fast-charging piles, electric heavy trucks, and hydrogen fuel cells, following the integrated concept of industry, academia, research, and application. At the same time, actively promote the research, demonstration, and large-scale development of wind and photovoltaic hydrogen production, hydrogen storage and transportation, biomass fuels, and direct current distribution networks, to smooth the economic realization path of new energy applications in the transportation field.

The low-altitude economy is growing rapidly. At present, the low-altitude economy based on traditional general aviation and new drone industries is booming in China. By the end of 2023, China had 689 general aviation companies and 451 general airports. It is estimated that last year, China's low-altitude economy exceeded 500 billion yuan, and it is expected to reach 2 trillion yuan by 2030.

Song Zhiyong said that with the continuous expansion of new technologies such as drones in the low-altitude field in China, the low-altitude economy is further developing towards unmanned, intelligent, collaborative, and green directions.

The development direction of the low-altitude economy coincides with the connotation of sustainable transportation, and its rapid growth is expected to become a new driving force for promoting the development of sustainable transportation. Currently, many provinces and cities across the country are planning and developing the low-altitude economy.

Li Zhong, the vice governor of Anhui Province, introduced that Anhui has basically formed a low-altitude industry cluster with the general aviation industry as the main body and the drone industry as the support. In the fields of urban management, public services, and cultural tourism consumption, Anhui has launched a batch of market-oriented application scenarios, with scenarios such as drone medical material transportation, emergency rescue air channels, and takeaway drone delivery continuously expanding. Hefei, Wuhu, and other places have opened 20 drone postal logistics routes, and Huangshan, Lu'an, and other places have more than 10,000 people participating in low-altitude helicopter tourism this summer.

In recent years, Xiaopeng Motors has been actively exploring the creation of low-altitude travel products and expanding the application scenarios of the low-altitude economy. Chen Han, the vice president of Xiaopeng Motors, introduced the world's first split-type flying car - the land aircraft carrier, which can automatically separate and combine the land body and the flying body with one-button operation.

Next, with the continuous expansion of low-altitude economy application scenarios and the continuous emergence of new technologies, more solutions will be provided for emergency rescue, logistics distribution, and other fields.