China backing development of autonomous cars

Recent research from the Boston Consulting Group has shown that China will be the largest market for autonomous vehicles within 15 years, with automated taxis most likely to take the lead. Chinese firms such as internet giant Baidu and Leshi Internet Information & Technology (better known as LeTV) have driverless car tech units, and Chinese automaker, Great Wall Motors, has opened a research centre in Silicon Valley. China has been extremely supportive in preparing regulatory and infrastructural support for autonomous vehicles, meaning that unlike Google, which has had difficulty convincing regulators in California about the safety and preparedness of self-driving vehicles, Baidu has the full support of a number of local governments on China to test and run such vehicles on open roads. Nevertheless, Chinese firms face challenges from run-down, poorly-marked roads with little or no signage and significant congestion, as multitudes of people, animals, and rickshaws share the roads with modern vehicles.

Gansha Wu was a veteran engineering manager at Intel Corporation and director of Intel Labs China when two events upended his world last year.

First, he listened to the veteran technology writer Michael Malone tell an audience of Intel employees that if they were too cautious they would fail. Then he attended a leadership training session for Intel executives. The trainer told them that “to be a leader is to design a future that is unpredictable and which nobody bets on.”

He couldn’t sleep at night, thinking about his well-ordered, 16-year career at Intel. So he decided to take a risk. With four colleagues, he made the decision to take the uncertain path, which today is becoming more common in China than even in Silicon Valley: He quit his job to begin a start-up that specializes in autonomous, or self-driving, cars.

In the process, Mr. Wu hit upon a rare moment when a tech sector in China is developing in lock step with a similar but separate market in the United States.