Chinese firms are taking a different route to driverless cars

The Economist (10/12/2019)
  • While Western tech giants focus on making driverless technology smarter, Chinese firms are working with the government to adjust existing roads and highways to work-around existing driverless constraints.
  • Enforced adjustments include installing street sensors to guide cars, changing rules for how pedestrians can move around and re-designing landscapes.
  • Since 2014, American firms (eg Google’s Waymo, Tesla) have invested $11.9 billion into driverless technology vs $4.4 billion from Chinese firms (eg Ponyai, WeRide).
  • China’s approach will lead to mass-driverless car adoption before the US.