Why Is Beijing Promoting the Use of Driverless Vehicles in the Capital?

CGTN Europe interviewed David Bailey, a Professor of Business Economics at the Birmingham Business School.

Transcript

00:00Well let's talk about this a little bit more in more detail with David Bailey who's Professor of

00:04Business Economics at Birmingham Business School. Great to see you as always David. So we've been

00:09hearing there about more test licenses. I want to talk about China's new regulations that came out

00:15at the end of last year for autonomous vehicles. It's all about the technology isn't it and

00:20allowing driverless taxis and buses in cities. Yes I think that's absolutely right. So I think

00:26it's about allowing driverless taxis, buses, delivery vehicles to really develop the technology

00:33in China and to position China as the global leader in driverless vehicles going forward

00:38as indeed it already is in terms of electric cars. So I think it's very much about developing

00:42the technology and the industry. I think there's a second part to it as well which is that China

00:48sees huge social and economic benefits for driverless vehicles in terms of car sharing,

00:54reduced congestion, the ability to work in the car whether you're traveling. So I think they

00:58see as well a way of boosting the economy going forward. So we're talking there about China as

01:05being a global leader in this space. So I wonder how what's being proposed in Beijing and Wuhan

01:11and other cities in China compares to the approach of other cities around the world.

01:16Well that was a great summary there from your colleague and China is very much leading the way.

01:21We already see driverless vehicles for example in California, in Los Angeles, in San Francisco,

01:27the likes of Waymo for example already doing that and very limited trials in some European cities

01:34and some trials that are taking place in Singapore. But it's just the scale of what is being proposed

01:39here which is just massive compared with anything else. I mean we've already seen some of it.

01:44Your colleague talked about Wuhan there where some driverless kind of robo-taxis have been

01:48operating across a third to a half of the city. This is really opening up onto a much much bigger

01:54scale. So it's way ahead I think of anything else around the world. And you mentioned the impact it

02:00could have on economic growth region to region. What impact do you think that this push for

02:05autonomous is going to mean for the broader automotive industry in China? I think it will

02:11ultimately mean a transformation as we've started to see already with the electric car industry. So

02:17China is already way ahead of other countries in terms of developing the electric vehicle industry

02:22thanks to a very supportive industrial policy over the last 25 years. So China is already leading in

02:28that space. The next step beyond that is autonomous vehicles and it will mean I think a completely new

02:34value chain going forward. So based on autonomous electric vehicles it links in with artificial

02:40intelligence. It links in with cloud-based computing. It links to the apps that consumers

02:47will use to order their driverless cars and plan their journey. So it really means I think ultimately

02:53a transformation of the value chain going forward. It's not going to happen immediately. It's going

02:58to take some time but things will be very different in the future. And if we think about the future as

03:02a consumer ultimately the idea is to be able to summon a driverless taxi. You won't be able to,

03:09you won't need to own a car inside these big cities. I've got so much more to talk

03:14to you about but we have to leave it there. David Bailey it's always a pleasure. Thank you very much.