The integration of vehicle, road, and cloud has become the focus of global transportation industry transformation, a key area of competition in the automotive industry, and a technological high ground. Since 2024, China has launched pilot projects for vehicle road cloud integration in 20 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Shenzhen, exploring the path of technological integration and commercialization. Entering 2025, the pace of construction is accelerating comprehensively, moving from concept verification to large-scale application. However, commercialization still faces multiple challenges. Industry insiders call for starting with the reconstruction of the industrial ecosystem, with the government, enterprises, and capital working together to promote the "smart car" to embark on the "smart road". In recent years, as pilot cities accelerate their construction, the intelligence level of bicycles in China has continued to improve, and the penetration rate of new cars with combined assisted driving functions (L2 level) has exceeded 57%. At the same time, the industry generally believes that vehicle road cloud integration is a complex system that integrates "vehicle road network cloud map", which can further ensure the safety of autonomous driving and serve diverse scenarios such as urban NOA and collaborative warning. Based on this judgment, China has taken the lead in proposing the integrated development path of "intelligence+networking" globally, and has formed a first mover advantage in key links such as cloud control platforms. In July 2024, 20 cities were approved to carry out pilot projects for integrated vehicle road cloud applications. Various regions rely on existing projects such as intelligent networking test zones and vehicle networking pilot zones, and continue to make efforts around policy systems, infrastructure, and business models. A number of projects have been implemented one after another. Taking Chongqing as an example, currently, Chongqing High tech Zone has built about 50 kilometers of urban intelligent roads with continuous perception coverage, connecting more than 1200 connected vehicles of various types, deploying cloud control platforms and 9 major application systems, and conducting pilot projects for various scenarios such as autonomous bus routes and unmanned cleaning vehicles. Since 2020, Beijing Economic Development Zone has taken the lead in building the first high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone. After more than 4 years of construction, the integrated infrastructure of vehicle, road and cloud has completed 600 square kilometers of contiguous coverage, and a city level engineering test platform covering the five major systems of "vehicle, road and cloud network map" has been built. More than 800 autonomous driving vehicles from over 30 car companies are in operation, and citizens can use the app "ride hailing" for regular travel. Entering 2025, the integration of vehicle, road and cloud will accelerate its transformation from concept verification to practical use, and construction will enter an acceleration period. A number of construction projects will be accelerated, and pilot cities will accelerate the construction of a more refined and comprehensive urban road intelligent perception system. In January, Nanjing issued the "Three Year Plan for the Construction of Vehicle Road Cloud Integration", becoming the first city among the 20 pilot cities to issue a three-year plan for the construction of vehicle road cloud integration. It will focus on six directions, including the construction of a city level cloud control platform. In July, Changzhou, Zhengzhou, Hainan and other places announced new progress in the integration of vehicle, road and cloud projects. In addition, during the implementation of vehicle road cloud integration, various technological routes have emerged, such as communication infrastructure driven service-oriented models and operator led "cloud control platform+vehicle road access" solutions, which are advancing in parallel. Car companies are also making efforts. The large-scale commercial application of intelligent connected vehicles has reached a critical juncture, and car companies such as BMW have announced the mass production of models equipped with vehicle road cloud integration technology by 2025. Dongfeng Motor has joined forces with various parties to promote the Rongwu Expressway bidirectional empowerment project, connecting the communication link between the operation platform and the vehicle enterprise cloud platform, as well as the on-board terminal equipment. The roadside safety control and warning information can directly reach the vehicle end, laying a solid defense line for drivers' safe travel. Vehicle accident information can also be fed back in real-time to the highway management platform, greatly enhancing the emergency response capabilities of highways. The promotion of applications faces numerous challenges. Currently, the integration of vehicle, road, and cloud is booming, but challenges such as difficult application implementation, insufficient participation of car companies, and unclear business models still plague the development of the industry. Some pilot cities have poor overall coordination. The reporter learned from the interview that due to the lack of construction and operation entities and top-level work teams in some cities, as well as the lack of cross departmental coordination mechanisms, coupled with insufficient management and coordination during the construction process and operation and maintenance stages, the effectiveness of the pilot project is ultimately affected. Ouyang Huazhou, Vice President of Mogu Car Alliance, said that currently, the integration of vehicle, road and cloud is facing challenges such as difficult infrastructure coordination, low data quality, and fragmented application scenarios. It is still necessary for government departments in pilot areas to strengthen overall planning and coordination. Infrastructure coverage is still insufficient, and the scale of connected vehicles is relatively small. Chu Wenbo, General Manager of Western Intelligent Union, said that currently, various regions still face high costs in carrying out road intelligent transformation. For example, the cost of transforming an intelligent intersection can still reach hundreds of thousands of yuan, and it is mostly led by the government for investment. The promotion still needs to be accelerated. In terms of vehicles connected to the integrated vehicle road cloud system, the installation rate of network connection equipment for buses, taxis, and other vehicles is relatively low in many places, resulting in a smaller scale of vehicles connected to the integrated vehicle road cloud system. Ultimately, the current integration of vehicle, road, and cloud technology still does not have a prominent role in empowering vehicles, resulting in a low willingness for vehicle access. The participation of car companies is insufficient, and data silos need to be cracked. The interviewee stated that the integration of vehicle, road, and cloud is still in its early stages, and the data of car companies has not yet been integrated into cloud control platforms on a large scale. The experience and perception of vehicle, road, and cloud integration among car users are still weak. Wu Yong, Deputy General Manager of Western Car Network (Chongqing) Co., Ltd., said that the current car market is in turmoil, and car companies have no time to carry out pilot projects for vehicle road cloud integration; The layout of roadside facilities is also insufficient, and the roadside information connected to the cloud platform is in a fragmented state, failing to form a continuous and systematic data flow. The ecosystem is in the early exploration stage, and the level of empowerment for automotive networking is weak, making it difficult to attract car companies to enter the market, resulting in limited collaboration capabilities between vehicle, road, and cloud. The business model is vague and the investment return is difficult to close loop. Wu Yong said that in the current pilot projects of vehicle road cloud integration in various regions, there is still a relative lack of operating entities similar to smart road network operators. In addition, some common commercial scenarios such as unmanned delivery still struggle to cover costs, and profit models such as data value-added services have not yet formed a scale, failing to form an investment loop. Due to this limitation, the funding for pilot projects in many regions is mainly borne by government departments or urban investment companies, with low participation of social capital. In addition, the integration of vehicle, road, and cloud has not yet formed a unified standard, making it difficult to form a fully integrated investment, construction, and operation model. Industry insiders believe that the integration of vehicle, road, and cloud is not only a technological change, but also a reconstruction of the industrial ecosystem, which still requires multi-party collaboration. Strengthen government coordination, promote facility construction and scene building. Industry insiders suggest that, given the poor performance of some pilot cities, it is suggested to establish a specialized team to strengthen coordination across departments and promote key work tasks in a coordinated manner. Dai Yifan, Assistant Dean of Tsinghua University Suzhou Automotive Research Institute, believes that in the construction of vehicle road cloud integration, local governments should play a leading role, build cloud control platforms, and achieve information exchange. Only when information is connected and users can use it, can enterprises be willing to participate and continue to promote it, "said Chen Shanzhi, Deputy General Manager of China Information Science and Technology Corporation. To promote the integration of vehicle, road and cloud construction in different scenarios and stages, precise investment should be strengthened, and priority should be given to deploying sensing equipment in high-risk accident areas and highway ramps; And accelerate the popularization of internet connected devices in the front of operating vehicles, rapidly increasing penetration rate. Explore diverse business models and activate market vitality. Wu Yong and others suggested that leading enterprises should play a leading role in creating a "city level platform" for vehicle road cloud integration, and promote the interconnection and intercommunication between cloud control platforms, city brains, and traffic management platforms; And strengthen ecological co construction, encourage car companies, communication providers, and map providers to establish joint ventures, carry out value-added services such as data cleaning and high-precision map updates, and fully tap into the value of data; We should also promote scene openness, attract social capital investment, and take the lead in commercialization in low-risk fields such as logistics and environmental sanitation. Chu Wenbo suggested that emphasis should be placed on promoting the participation of car companies in pilot projects, establishing a hierarchical and classified data sharing mechanism, allowing car companies to retain core data sovereignty, open roadside dynamic information to all vehicles, and promote the integration of vehicle road cloud data. Improve policy standards and promote cross regional collaboration. Currently, there are still obstacles to the integration of vehicle, road, and cloud standards, such as incompatible interfaces and communication protocols between roadside devices in various cities, and difficulties in cross regional collaboration. Gong Weijie, Deputy Secretary General of the China Society of Automotive Engineers, suggested that relevant departments should aim for the goal of having the same architecture and unified standards, and refine and improve the recommended standard list around the pilot application of city level vehicle road cloud integration; And collaborate with cross industry units to explore the integrated testing and evaluation system, operation mode, etc. of vehicle road cloud. (New Society)