China embracing driverless, electric future, shows study
New survey shows 73pc of car users in China would be happy to ditch their own vehicle altogether for a driverless taxi, if the latter costs less per trip
Sixty per cent of car drivers in China – the world’s largest automobile market – are considering buying an electric car, much higher than the global average of 37 per cent, according to a survey by German consulting firm Roland Berger, published on Friday.
The company polled more than 10,000 car users in ten countries, including the US, Britain, South Korea, Japan, India, Germany and Singapore, and Chinese participants also demonstrated the sharpest appetite for autonomous driving.
Globally, 46 per cent said they would be happy to ditch their car altogether for a driverless taxi if the latter costs less per trip, but in China, the proportion is as high as 73 per cent, the consulting firm found.
LeEco, Baidu and other Chinese tech giants have been pitting themselves against the likes of Google, Uber and Apple in their race to develop their own self-driving vehicles, while traditional carmakers such as General Motors and Chinese-owned Volvo have also jumped into the fray with multimillion dollar investments.
Many have pinned hopes that autonomous driving will reduce traffic congestions and air pollution – two burning issues troubling hundreds of millions of Chinese urbanites.
A separate study by the Boston Consulting Group and the World Economic Forum has shown that widespread use of driverless technology could slash the number of vehicles on city streets by 60 per cent, and curb emissions by 80 per cent.