00:00When you imagine the future, what do you see?
00:03Tech experts see cars that drive themselves.
00:07Who's designing this future?
00:09And what does it mean for you and I?
00:16This is China Explained.
00:18Self-driving cars are not science fiction.
00:21Several countries are testing this tech.
00:24China, the US, France and Germany, for example.
00:28Right now, each country is in a pilot phase,
00:31looking to draw up its own master plan.
00:34And China may provide a blueprint,
00:36because it's conducting what could be
00:39the largest self-driving experiment on the planet.
00:44China has issued at least 16,000 licenses for self-driving cars.
00:49In some cases, they're sharing the same roads as human drivers.
00:54The number of vehicles has been climbing for years.
00:57But demand really spiked in the summer of 2024.
01:01Self-driving taxis now operate in nearly 20 Chinese cities.
01:06Tech giant Baidu launched its Apollo Go service
01:09in Chinese Luobo Kuipao in 2020.
01:13Four years later, it had clocked more than 7 million rides.
01:17Not bad, considering it could only operate
01:20in certain parts of each city.
01:22Baidu is now planning to offer its services
01:25in 100 cities by 2030.
01:28Meanwhile, other robo-taxi services are emerging.
01:31Companies like WeRide and Pony.ai, to name just a few.
01:35Electric vehicle manufacturers are also looking
01:38to use self-driving tech in future models.
01:41The self-driving sector is revving up.
01:43But how do these cars even work?
01:52Let's talk nuts and bolts.
01:54There are different levels of self-driving.
01:57These levels are supposed to help navigate the path
02:00to complete automation.
02:02Here's the lowdown.
02:04The driver does pretty much all the work
02:06from level 0 to level 2.
02:08With level 3, the car can drive itself.
02:11At times, you won't even need to keep your eyes on the road.
02:15There's even more automation in level 4.
02:18In fact, most of the time you can sit back and relax.
02:21Finally, level 5.
02:23The car can operate by itself at all times.
02:26There's no driver,
02:28so no need for a steering wheel or pedals.
02:31Most self-driving cars today are fitted
02:34with multi-sensor systems.
02:36So, cameras, radar, and LiDAR,
02:39which uses lasers to detect objects and measure distance.
02:43There are other systems, like Tesla's FSD,
02:46or full self-driving.
02:48This relies almost entirely on cameras.
02:51But both systems come with strings attached.
02:54The multi-sensor systems are expensive
02:56and can be affected by external factors,
02:59like the weather.
03:00On the flip side, the full self-driving model
03:03sometimes struggles to process really complex environments.
03:07So, there are limitations.
03:09Sometimes it seems the robo-taxis are just not smart enough.
03:14And the fact is, some people have had issues with them.
03:17Hey, you don't want any?
03:25The idea of self-driving cars may work on paper,
03:29but imagine millions driving themselves around the city,
03:33each with its own plan.
03:35It could get very messy, very fast.
03:37That means we have to think big.
03:40Really big.
03:42China is working on a system that goes beyond self-driving cars.
03:47It's known as vehicle-road-cloud integration.
03:51This system will connect cars with each other
03:54and just about everything else.
03:56The road, pedestrians, cameras,
03:58and the IT systems running the cities.
04:01Maybe it's no surprise that China is working on this system.
04:05Its transport network has to support 1.4 billion people
04:10It also has a complicated web of roads linking cities to rural areas.
04:15Experts say the vehicle-road-cloud integration
04:18can manage this complexity.
04:20But to achieve this, China will need better infrastructure,
04:24satellite navigation systems, cloud computing,
04:27high-definition maps, communication networks,
04:30and, of course, rules and regulations.
04:33That's a long list.
04:35But China started planning it.
04:37That's a long list.
04:39But China started planning for this in 2015.
04:42The government has identified nearly 20 cities as pilot areas.
04:46That will allow experts to run tests
04:49on a road network spanning 32,000 kilometers.
04:53For context, the entire circumference of the earth
04:56is 40,000 kilometers.
04:59So yeah, they aren't cutting corners.
05:02But seriously, the results could have major implications,
05:05paving the way for smart cities.
05:08In these cities, live data shapes our movements,
05:11helping people get around quickly and safely.
05:14And smart cities look set to boost China's economy.
05:18The China Society of Automotive Engineers
05:21says these intelligent transport networks
05:23should add infrastructure worth $370 billion by 2030.
05:29It may sound super impressive,
05:32but it won't mean much if people don't trust the tech.
05:41So, will Chinese people use these cars?
05:45Research firm McKinsey published a report
05:47on the self-driving sector in 2021.
05:5060% of Chinese respondents said they would buy
05:53a driverless car if it was affordable.
05:56That's above both the U.S. and Germany,
05:59countries famous for their technical innovation.
06:02Let's be clear.
06:03China has faced its share of obstacles
06:06on its road to a self-driving future.
06:12Taxi drivers in Wuhan have said
06:15they're worried that robo-taxis will steal their jobs.
06:18The cars have also been involved in accidents.
06:21That hasn't helped their reputations.
06:23Traffic regulations are also designed mostly for human drivers,
06:27making it tricky to enforce the rules
06:29when there's no one in the driver's seat.
06:32But the surge in demand for robo-taxis in 2024
06:35suggests people are getting more comfortable with these vehicles.
06:39Officials are also looking for ways to build trust.
06:42Beijing, for example, released draft regulations in July 2024.
06:47Several other cities are set to do the same.
06:50All of that suggests China is unlikely
06:52to make a U-turn on its policy.
06:55So, it seems the sky is the limit.
07:04Well, actually, no.
07:07The sky is the target.
07:10China is also trying to develop so-called air taxis.
07:14These are unmanned aircraft that take off without a runway.
07:18They could transport everything from pineapples to people.
07:22And they could do it super fast.
07:25Chinese firm Autoflight completed a test flight in early 2024,
07:29sending its aircraft from Shenzhen to Zhuhai.
07:33That trip takes at least two hours by car.
07:36This flight was just 20 minutes.
07:39Sure, air taxis might sound kind of spacey,
07:43but a Chinese company has already secured a license
07:46to make them on a mass scale.
07:48This sector is literally taking off.
07:51Chinese analysts say the so-called low-altitude economy
07:54was worth $72 billion in 2024.
07:58They think it could double in size by 2026.
08:03There's no way to know how the streets of the future will look,
08:07but China's journey may offer some clues.
08:10It has a clear plan,
08:12and it understands that a plan means nothing without action.
08:21NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
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