The launch ceremony for the ICV demonstration area project is held at Changchun International Auto City in Changchun. [Photo/cnjiwang.com]

Built by giant auto manufacturer FAW Group Corporation and Changchun, an intelligent connected vehicle (ICV) demonstration area was launched on Aug 29 at Changchun International Auto City, in Changchun, the capital city of Northeast China's Jilin province, according to local media reports.

Named Qizhi Chuncheng, the ICV demonstration area project involves innovative cooperation between the municipal government and the company, local officials said.

They added that it also represents major innovation by FAW in cross-industry co-construction, cross-business cooperation and implementation, within the scenario of "smart city" travel applications.

With a total investment of 2 billion yuan ($291.4 million) the project was constructed -- and is expected to be developed into an industry leader within five years.

By 2025, officials added, the project is expected to have achieved the integration of people, vehicles, roads, management, online cloud storage and utilities. They said it is expected to meet the development goals of testing, operational demonstrations, commercial demonstration and industrial development.

Officials said that the project will provide an exploratory path for the upgrading of smart driving technology and the development of a cooperative vehicle infrastructure system.

They said it will provide a basic platform for travel data accumulation, exploring applications scenarios and business models, providing data support for the improvement of travel services, traffic management and optimized traffic planning.

In addition, it will build the "Hongqi Green Smart Town", which will become a model for the integrated development of smart cars and smart transportation.

The first phase of the project covers the surrounding road sections, from Changchun Automobile Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee to the FAW headquarters new business district.

Officials said the construction involved the smart reconstruction of the roads and a big data cloud control infrastructure platform for automobiles.

The roads in the demonstration area have already achieved full coverage of 5G signals and road information can be transferred in real-time to the big data cloud control platform.

Officials said that through vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology, the interconnection between vehicles and vehicles, vehicles and people, as well as vehicles and networks can be achieved.

They said this means that vehicles and traffic lights, electronic signboards and road identification equipment and facilities can share information -- covering many different application scenarios including speed guidance, pedestrian warnings, collision warnings and lane changing assistance.