An average of 300 million people take the road every day!
During the National Day holiday, Chinese people can no longer hide their enthusiasm for traveling to mountains and rivers.
In this large-scale "collective outing", highways carried more than 90% of the traffic, and self-driving was the absolute main force.
In recent years, self-driving travel has been firmly the dominant mode of holiday travel. The era of "universal self-driving" is coming.
Behind the growth trend is the solid foundation of the major automobile country.
As of the end of June 2026, the number of cars in the country has reached 371 million, and there are 533 million car drivers. Both data rank first in the world. In terms of production and sales, China's automobile production and sales have ranked first in the world for 17 consecutive years.
Of course, having a car is not enough. For the car to run, the supporting equipment must keep up.
As of the end of 2025, the country's highway mileage reached 5.5789 million kilometers, of which 199,400 kilometers were expressways, and 98.1% were highways of grade four or above. China's expressway mileage ranks first in the world.
With the popularity of new energy vehicles, the high-speed charging network is also accelerating.
According to data released by the Ministry of Transport, from January to August this year, approximately 11,000 high-power charging facilities (charging guns) were added to service areas across the country, which is the total number in 2025 and before.
Up to now, the number of high-power charging facilities in service areas has reached approximately 22,000, and the total number of charging facilities built in highway service areas across the country has reached approximately 89,000.
Insufficient charging piles and anxious queues are being systematically addressed.
The improvement of infrastructure is no longer limited to "whether there are roads", but also includes a series of supporting services such as better rest, supplies, and charging.
When a car drives out, it pulls a very long consumption chain including catering, accommodation, tickets, vehicle supplies, self-driving equipment, car maintenance, etc. along the route. The scale of the chain is considerable.
According to the "China Self-Driving Tourism Development Report" jointly released by the Tourism Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the China Tourism Vehicle and Vessel Association, by 2024, the size of China's self-driving tourism market has exceeded 1.5 trillion yuan.
The self-driving audience is also reaching a wider age group. The "National County Self-Driving Travel Research Report 2025" shows that the self-driving travel market is shifting from being dominated by middle-aged groups aged 35 to 55, and extending to both "Generation Z" and "Silver-haired Groups". Healthy and active retired people over 60 years old have gradually become an important force in long-distance self-driving travel.
What deserves more attention is the direction of policy trends.
The “15th Five-Year Plan” outline clearly states that we will enrich the supply of high-quality tourism products, deeply explore unique resources and cultural connotations, and actively promote the integrated development of multiple business formats.
Self-driving travel, as an important carrier to activate cultural tourism consumption and connect urban and rural resources, is using the road network as a link to inject a steady stream of new momentum into related industries.
Roads are not only passages connecting mountains and seas, but also economic ties that gather vitality. Wherever the wheels pass, you can see the vast mountains and rivers, and you can also touch the fireworks of the world.
The trillion-level "wheel economy" is creating a new cultural tourism landscape and new economic momentum for China.
