A frog under a coconut shell is a Malay proverb that describes insularity. You may think that this lack of knowledge of the world is not probable and that, conversely, we’re more affected by information overload rather than being a “katak di bawah tempurung” as the saying goes.
But sometimes, cultural bias can lead to ignorance, a state of which is happily pushed back by travel, exploration and adventure.
In 2018, when Tesla was still a rich man’s toy in the US, we were in China to visit the Shenzhen international automotive aftermarket industry trade fair.
We took a taxi from the airport to the hotel, and you know what the taxi was? It was a BYD e6, an electric vehicle built by BYD, the Chinese battery maker to the world. It was amazing to me, a Western-oriented auto journalist who didn’t read Mandarin or browse Chinese websites.
We had learned about the BYD e6 as a concept many years earlier when we visited BYD’s factory on a media trip with the Berjaya Group and its chief executive Robin Tan.
Let me tell you something else about China’s automotive industry that the Western press aren’t going to shout about: autonomous cars. Some Western-biased automotive experts have even said that autonomous cars are so complicated that we won’t experience them in our lifetime.
Let’s crack that cultural bias which says all tech originates from the West and that if it’s not invented in the West, it doesn’t exist.
A Shanghai-based autonomous driving tech company, DeepRoute.ai, has been given a permit to have passenger-carrying autonomous car tests in Shenzhen.
Last week, DeepRoute.ai became the first automaker to obtain a permit that allows self-driving cars to carry passengers on the streets in Shenzhen.
DeepRoute.ai said via its WeChat account on April 23 that it will launch its robotaxi service in Shenzhen from the middle of 2021.
Shenzhen is just 40km north of Hong Kong and is China’s Silicon Valley, where more than 14,000 high-tech companies including Huawei, Lenovo and Tencent are based.
Deeproute.ai will first launch as a pilot programme in the business parts of the city where the roads are well marked and 5G bandwidth is abundant.
People who want to participate in the robotaxi trial will need to apply. From there, the programme will expand to other areas depending on demand and the road furniture as well as physical parameters that facilitate autonomous driving.
According to a document issued by Shenzhen’s authorities last August, the autonomous driving cars must run for at least 1,000km without any traffic violations, crashes or accidents before they are placed into the trial operation of the robotaxi service.
The self-driving solution provider has so far carried out autonomous car tests on open roads of the urban areas in Shenzhen, Wuhan and Hangzhou, accumulating over 1 million km of testing mileages without error or handover to a human operator.
Additionally, the company also aced up to 12 tests including the recognition and response to traffic lights, roundabouts, pedestrians, buses stopping to pick-up and drop off passengers, bicycles and intersections.
Founded in early 2019, DeepRoute.ai is a level 4 self-driving solution provider to car manufacturers, tier 1 vendors, and ride-hailing and logistics companies.
Autonomous driving is categorised into four levels, from zero to level 4 which means a robot, fully autonomous, vehicle.
“DeepRoute.ai’s autonomous cars began carrying passengers and cargo in Wuhan and Xiamen last year,” said Liu Nianqiu, vice president of the startup, according to a report from GasGoo.
“For the trial operation in Shenzhen this year, we are well prepared in the working schemes, contingency plans, and insurance and safety guarantees,” he added.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.