Construction and rethinking on public service platform for autonomous driving test

To promote the development of autonomous driving technology in China, by conducting a comprehensive survey and adhering to the principles of instrumental design, the transportation and vehicle engineering discipline of the National Natural Science Foundation of China proposed a public service platform for autonomous driving tests (OnSite). The platform embodied the principles of socially co-constructed scenario library, agile development environment, system-under-test decoupling, lightweight test deployment, and transparent test result sharing. To ensure the independent development and smooth operation of the public service platform, the strategic committee, technical committee, user committee, and innovation foundation were set up through the self-decision-making. In 2021, research in this field was launched rapidly through the support of general programs by the transportation and vehicle engineering discipline. From 2022, research related to the autonomous driving technology testing was supported by the key and general programs. The construction of the OnSite platform was promoted, and the organized scientific research was actively carried out. A five-stage construction plan for the public service platform was devised, which follows the steps of single-item decision-making and planning testing, from single-item testing to full-stack testing, from virtual testing to virtual-real fusion testing, from single-vehicle testing to fleet testing, and from testing-orientation to development testing. The first phase of the construction goals was accomplished, and the testing capability for the single-item decision-making and planning functions was developed. Relying on the OnSite platform, the First OnSite Autonomous Driving Algorithm Competition was successfully held by the transportation and vehicle engineering discipline, which assisted researchers in pinpointing research gaps and promoted the realization of a demand-driven and problem-oriented research paradigm. It broke the barriers between the scientific research institutions and the industrial sectors and realized the accurate and rapid docking among industry, academia, and research. Furthermore, the OnSite competition was utilized the competition for testing, improved the evaluation system of the basic research programs, and contributed to addressing the issue of pursuing only four aspects.