(Yicai Global) Oct. 11 -- FAW Jiefang Automotive Co., the truck subsidiary of FAW Group, China's leading automaker, said yesterday that three of its Jiefang container smart trucks have successfully completed field testing on a stretch of the Changchun-Shenzhen Highway, marking the first time that commercial vehicles in China have realized smart driving in an expressway environment, state-run Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday.

The test mainly included three functions -- autonomous cruise control (ACC), autonomous emergency braking (AEB), and a lane-holding assistance system (LHAS).

When the control system activates in the ACC test, the vehicle automatically cruises at the prescribed speed. In the AEB test, the control system not only promptly sounds an alarm, but also brakes automatically. When the LHAS deploys, the driver can keep both hands free of the steering wheel and the truck will stay in the lane it which it travels.

Smart commercial vehicles represent the future trend in the sector, said Hu Hanjie, general manager of FAW Jiefang Automobile. The company will develop high-precision positioning-based L3 level and 5G communications networks founded on L4 level autopilot models in 2018 and 2020, respectively. The company will further develop an L5-level automatic driving model by 2025, per the plan.