China has formulated an ambitious smart-car development plan, aiming to have such cars account for half of new electric cars by 2020, according to "innovative development strategy for smart car" unveiled by the National Development and Reform Commission on Jan. 5.
The plan calls for the completion of a fundamental framework for smart car by then, including technological innovation, industrial ecology, road-network facilities, legal standards, product supervision and information safety, coupled with 90% coverage of freeways by LTE-V2X and comprehensive coverage by high-precision time/space service of the Beidou Navigation Satellite System.
The NDRC predicts that the smart-car network will be perfected by 2025, when smart cars will become mainstream new car models, materializing high-extent coordination of "human-car-road-cloud," with an established 5G-V2X to meet the needs of smart cars. By 2035, Chinese smart cars will attain a leading status worldwide, facilitating the formation of a "safe, high-performance, green, and civilized" smart-car society.
In the plan, smart car includes car with Internet access, car with various extents of automatic driving function, and driverless car, referring to new-generation cars with partial or complete automatic driving function, thanks to such devices as sensor, controller, and actuator, and the employment of cutting-edge technologies of communications, IoT, big data, cloud-end computing, and AI.
Alongside the plan, China is vigorously pushing the development of AI. xinhuanet reported on Jan. 3, citing the Beijing News, that Jingxi Construction Co., Ltd. of Zhongguancun is overseeing the construction of "Zhongguancun AI Technology Park," spanning 54.85 hectares in space, which will accommodate big-data, cloud-end computing, biological-recognition, and deep-learning industries. The park will be furnished with 5G communications service, as well as a super-computing center and various professional cloud services. Meanwhile Beijing's Mentougou district has been designated as a pilot area for smart driving.
The smart-car plan is in line with "strengthening of core manufacturing competitiveness: three-year plan (2018-2020)," publicized by the NDRC on Nov. 27 last year, calling for the development of advanced manufacturing industries, IoT, big data, and AI, for profound integration with physical economy. Its action plan calls for the accelerated development of rail transportation equipment, high-end shipping and marine engineering equipment, and smart manufacturing.
Chinese startup BYTON displayed a brand new smart electric car (see first photo) during CES, held in Las Vegas starting Jan. 7. On top of voice recognition, touch control, and bio-recognition, the car is furnished with an air-touch sensor, enabling passengers, on front or rear seats, to control screen with gesture. Another noticeable technology is facial recognition, enabling car owner to open car door without key.
(Photo courtesy of BYTON)