No Doubt About It! China Overtaking Silicon Valley With New Groundbreaking Innovations in Tech!
Artificial intelligence, advanced technologies, and futuristic design. The Chinese auto industry is breaking stereotypes at the international auto show in Shanghai. The sensational new designs include self-driving cars, electric cars, and the first car by the smartphone company Huawei. The largest international concerns are fighting for the attention of the local press and move their presentations to the east.
The new Vesti reporter for China, Alexander Balitsky, with the details on how automobile fashion is changing under the influence of the world's largest market.
A car can be anything in China as long as it's electric. But the Shanghai Auto Show adds another rule to this main one: a car must also be smart. Every prototype is equipped with its own AI.
"The car recognizes me and opens its doors, inviting me to get in".
Red, the favored color of the Chinese, a symbol of luck and happiness, was the right choice by the Volkswagen designers. But that's not the main thing. The hexagon-shaped steering wheel folds and the driver turns into a passenger.
The designers of this Audi AI:ME, the most anticipated prototype in Shanghai, followed the same path.
"It drives equally smoothly when manually controlled and when on autopilot".
A coffee table with magnetic surface instead of a gearbox, a panoramic roof made of self-tinting glass, and a 3D control panel. A tiny greenhouse inside only confirms that the technology is green.
In Beijing, which sometimes gets stifled by smog, environmentally-friendly transport is always in demand. It must also be roomy; the Chinese love big cars. The acceleration time and battery capacity (300 miles without recharging) are overshadowed by the designers' imagination.
This car is different from all other prototypes because it's basically a production model. In three months, it'll be driving on the streets of China. Here's AI in action. It's enough to set a destination, give a clear command, and the car does the rest in a special, Chinese way.
The car easily navigates around obstacles and allows a pedestrian (played by Way the Robot) to cross. The Chinese car industry is no longer an attack of the clones. Some companies still copy famous brands. Here's a Land Rover. And here's its Chinese copy and almost namesake. But the rest of the Chinese car companies have acquired their own face.
Ted Lee, CMO of NIO: "We've already broken the stereotype about Chinese cars. Now, it's a synonym of high quality and high technology".
Every bolt of the new NIO is made in China. It also started off by copying Tesla's design. Now, it's ready to compete with it in Europe.
However, the first priority of foreign auto concerns is to gain access to the Chinese market, the largest in the world, where almost 30 million cars are bought and sold every year. This market dictates automobile fashion to the rest of the world.
Alexander Balitsky, Mikhail Artyukhin Vesti, Shanghai.
