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A car workshop in Tongxiang, a county-level city in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

In a scenario that seems to be plucked straight from the pages of a science-fiction story, vehicles are not merely communicating with each other but also engaging in conversations with roadside traffic lights, signs, and seamlessly exchanging data with a vast cloud-based platform.

The innovative concept is not a figment of the imagination but rather the future that Tongxiang, a county-level city in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, is striving towards.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently unveiled the inaugural selection of pilot cities for the integrated vehicle-road-cloud system, with the area comprising the provincial capital of Hangzhou, Tongxiang, and Deqing county in Huzhou securing a coveted spot on the list.

What exactly does this integrated vehicle-road-cloud system entail? Put simply, it revolves around the synergy of smart vehicles, intelligent roads, and a "robust cloud" to realize intelligent and interconnected transportation, which would mark a major step forward in the evolution of smart transportation in China.

"The inclusion of Tongxiang in the pilot program is poised to significantly propel the city forward, especially in realms such as autonomous driving," said an official at the Tongxiang Bureau of Economy and Information Technology.