🚲 Mobility

Shenzhen Metro's GoA4 Driverless Lines (20 & 14)

Shenzhen Metro's Line 20 (opened December 2021, 8.4km) and Line 14 (October 2022, 50km) run at GoA4 — unattended, no driver or attendant onboard — independently certified by TÜV Nord against EN 50126/50128/50129 signalling and safety standards. Both have operated driverless since day one, with no reported rollback to staffed operation.

Live 📅 since 2021 ◆ Source-checked

🤖 AI-generated summary of the sources below — how this works · 🔎 Last verified 2026-07-31

🚲 Mobility Public transport Autonomous vehicles

🎓 Lesson

Unlike Osaka, Washington D.C. or Busan, where 'driverless since day one' turned out to mean staff rode along for years, Shenzhen's GoA4 claim was checked by an outside certifier (TÜV Nord) rather than taken on the operator's word alone.

Evidence📊 Independent

Scale🏙️ City-wide

📖 Terms in this entry: CBTC (communications-based train control) · Grades of Automation (GoA) · Personal rapid transit (PRT)

Sources

↗ Bao'an District News — city's first driverless metro line opens (Line 20)District government news portal, published day after the 28 Dec 2021 opening

↗ TÜV NORD Group — Fully Autonomous Metro Inspected and CertifiedIndependent third-party safety certification of Line 20 against EN 50126/50128/50129

↗ International Railway Journal — TÜV Nord certifies Shenzhen metro Line 20Trade press corroboration of the certification

↗ Shenzhen Government Online — Fully autonomous Metro Line 14 begins serviceOfficial city government English-language portal, 28 Oct 2022 opening

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed above and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

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Compare this project

🇰🇷 Incheon Metro Line 2's Road to Fully Unattended Operation · Incheon Shenzhen's Line 20 was TÜV-certified GoA4 from opening (2021); Incheon's Line 2 took until 2024 to run fully unattended. 🇨🇱 Santiago Metro Automation: Two Cabless Lines and CBTC on the Rest · Santiago Two GoA4 metros with no room for a driver: Santiago's newest trains have no cabin at all; Shenzhen's were certified by TÜV Nord. 🇨🇳 Shenzhen's Autonomous Vehicle Law & Citywide Driverless Robotaxi Permit · Shenzhen Two driverless-mobility stories in one city: certified GoA4 metro lines (2021-22) and a 2022 law enabling driverless robotaxis.

Explore the wider context

🔑 Your Smart City Is Owned by Someone Else 🚌 Public transport guide 🏙️ Shenzhen city profile 🚲 Mobility projects

📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Shenzhen Metro's GoA4 Driverless Lines (20 & 14)” — Shenzhen, China. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/shenzhen-goa4-driverless-lines/ (last verified 2026-07-31). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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