China's promising self-driving car industry motivates companies to develop their own autonomous vehicle. (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinese companies are taking steps toward developing driverless vehicles as study suggests that the country will soon house the biggest market for self-driving cars.
According to the New York Times, the Chinese will soon see the advantages of having artificial intelligence drive them to and fro considering their current traffic state.
Promising Future of Autonomous Vehicles
Citing Boston Consulting Group's managing director Xavier Mosquet, the NY Times revealed that in just a span of 15 years, China will be considered the world's biggest market for autonomous or the so-called self-driving vehicles.
"It's not that people are more willing to use the cars in Beijing or Shanghai, it's that the economic value is much higher in China than in the U.S.," he explained.
He further declared that the Asian country has more reason to adapt the technology than the U.S. because of the current air pollution situation in most of its major cities as well as traffic jams due to the large number of private vehicles on the road.
Aside from that, the Chinese government, both in the national and local levels, are highly supportive of the development of autonomous vehicles, which makes it easier for developers to conduct tests on their self-driving cars.
Chinese Companies Make It Big
Baidu, a Chinese tech company that currently leads the country's autonomous vehicle development, already has two years of head start in the development of driverless cars.
According to the Albany Daily Star, Baidu modified a BMW 3 Series vehicle, which "successfully completed rigorous, fully autonomous tests . . . under a variety of environmental conditions."
During the test, the vehicle performed some basic driving feats such as changing lanes, slowing down when there is a vehicle ahead, and making left, right and U-turns when necessary.
Leshi Internet Information & Technology, another Internet company, as well as Chinese automobile manufacturer Great Wall Motors are venturing into the same road with notable efforts in the industry.
However, the NY Times revealed that the Uisee Technology is the most "unusual" of them all.
Uisee is owned by former Intel Corporation engineering manager Gansha Wu, who took a risk of ending is 16-year employment with the American company to venture into a start-up on autonomous cars.
Backed up by a team of "supertalents," Wu targets 2017 to be the year when they will showcase the technology they have developed.
"We see a few stages toward fully autonomous driving," he told the NY Times.
According to Wu, their task becomes easier because of the emergence of safety technologies they can use in their plan, like introducing an AI driving assistant that would drive cars under restricted circumstances.
