During this year’s Qingming holiday, the weather in our province was sunny and warm, with bright spring sunshine and blooming flowers. Coupled with the policy of free passage for passenger vehicles with seven seats or fewer on expressways, many citizens took their families out on self-driving trips.
On April 7, a self-driving fleet composed of 65 vehicles in Liaocheng drove onto the expressway in great numbers, stretching nearly seven kilometers. People at service areas along the way and those who saw the fleet referred to it as the “strongest self-driving fleet in history.”
It is understood that among the 65 vehicles in the fleet, 60 were part of a self-driving group organized by Liaocheng car enthusiasts, while the other 5 were service vehicles providing communication, navigation, and other support for the entire fleet. The fleet was divided into groups of 15 vehicles each, with clearly defined roles for the lead vehicle, tail vehicle, and team leader vehicle.
According to the car enthusiasts, when driving on the highway, the lead vehicle couldn’t directly communicate with the tail vehicle via walkie-talkie, requiring intermediate service vehicles to relay messages. Among them, Service Vehicle No. 4, positioned in the middle of the fleet, carried an intermediate radio and served as the communication hub for the entire fleet. At the same time, a WeChat group spontaneously formed by the car enthusiasts served as a rear communication platform, ensuring smooth contact for every member of the fleet.
When reporters saw this “strongest self-driving fleet in history,” the fleet was traveling on the Jining-Liaocheng Expressway section between Jining and Liaocheng. The vehicles, numbered from 1 to 60 in driving order, advanced in neat and orderly fashion. A driver who saw the fleet joked: “It’s hard to imagine what it would be like to see a train driving on the expressway.”
Reporters learned through interviews that the “strongest self-driving fleet in history” set off early in the morning from Liaocheng. Their route was as follows: Traveling via the Jining-Liaocheng Expressway to Jinan, then transferring to the G2001 Jinan Ring Expressway, heading southbound on the G2 Beijing-Shanghai Expressway, reaching Laiwu via the Jining-Laiwu Expressway, then transferring to the G22 Qingdao-Lanzhou Expressway, and heading northbound on the G25 Changshen Expressway after turning off in Yishui County. Their destination was the Yishan Scenic Area in Linqu County, Weifang City, covering a total one-way distance of nearly 400 kilometers and a round trip of over 800 kilometers.
According to industry insiders, car enthusiasts in Liaocheng have never organized such a concentrated self-driving event before. Meanwhile, reporters contacted the Yishan Scenic Area in Linqu County, Weifang City, where a person in charge surnamed Zhang told reporters: “The scenic area has never received such a large-scale self-driving fleet before—this is the first time.” This shows that this massive convoy truly lives up to the title of the “strongest self-driving fleet in Liaocheng’s history.”