I'm not a fan of the CCP or China's authoritarian form of government, but in fairness, they do some things well. In particular, they seem to have a better grasp of robotics and AI and what it means for the future and plan accordingly. Self-driving cars are a prominent example, I can't think of any other country that is as on top of this as they are.
But why do Western countries have such blind spots?
Here's an example. The Irish government today published a €37 billion plan for the island's rail network over the next 25 years. Not once in its 162 pages does this report mention self-driving vehicles. Yet the 10c per km robotaxis currently being rolled out in China would be an obvious alternative to rail in Ireland when they are available, presumably by the 2030s.
It means all the 25-year projections and figures in this rail review are effectively “made up” because they’ve chosen to ignore the self-driving car elephant in the room.
This pattern seems common in planning and government outside of China, why is that so?
Why is China the only country that seems to be planning for a future with self-driving cars?
byu/lughnasadh inFuturology
31 Comments
Because as authoritarian government they can plan ahead. Without things to get in the way such as lawsuits, environmental review, personal property, etc.
You lease land for a 100 years in china I believe but eminent domain is a lot easier to use over there.
https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle-safety/automated-vehicles-safety
it’s not ready yet, and no one knows when it really will be ready.
Wouldn’t a rail network be much more efficient and sustainable compared to an equivalent fleet of electric vehicles?
Because China is entirely willing to risk life or injury for their citizens in order to appear better and smarter than everyone else.
Other nations, not as much.
Lots of pro-authoritarian chatter in this thread. The simple answer to your absurd assertion in that it’s not. There are plenty of places with self-driving cars and, as with all tech, it is proliferating. You may want to think that China has all the self-driving cars but you would be very wrong.
China has like 200x more cars than Ireland. For Ireland expanding rail versus autonomous driving is a better option.
China just built more high speed rail in like 1/4 of the time it would take anywhere else. They don’t have to answer to regulations – if a builder fails them – they can execute them. It’s not the same scale as other places.
I do wish it would be better planned for – here in the US – I think they just keep putting it on the corporations to solve but they do get to keep more of the money?
one big reason China is ahead in planning for self-driving cars is that their government can take a longterm, top- down approach to technology because of their centralized control. They can quickly implement and scale new technologies like AI and robotics without as much pushback or red tape
western countries often have more fragmented decision-making processes, which can slow down the adoption of emerging tech. Plus, there’s often a focus on preserving existing systems, like rail networks, rather than looking ahead to how future technologies might disrupt or replace them
The US runs on petroleum. The oil folks have little interest in improving your Earth or Your Life.
$$$
Self-driving vehicles are electric.
$$$
Honestly, pretty soon if not already, China will have boundless freedoms compared to our Project 2025 vision of how the Mafia will run the country.
People in US just want to hurt their neighbors so they vote against them at all cost even if it means shooting yourself in the face. That’s called a WIN. Fuck logic.
$$$
What do you mean, only China planning for this stuff?. Here is the UK’s [Automated Vehicles Act](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/self-driving-vehicles-set-to-be-on-roads-by-2026-as-automated-vehicles-act-becomes-law). Not every country has to shout their progress on this stuff form the rooftops. Just because they don’t, don’t assume its not happening behind the scenes.
Because they don’t have multi hundred year old oil companies who would prefer we continue to give them money instead? It’s not rocket science
They can do it because any action they make has no friction since it’s an authoritarian government. Where other countries has to legislate, navigate health and safety, pay to get a workforce and many many other things.
It is also a way to control their citizens, if government owned self driving cars are the only things allowed on the road, they control who is on the road and collect data and restrict movement. It is very beneficial for their regime.
Because high speed rail is proven technology and self driving cars are not.
The post’s whole premise doesn’t make sense. Waymo isn’t testing this, they’re already doing it. You can pay for a driverless ride right now, particularly on the west coast, for a substantial discount compared to human driven rides.
Maybe there are more total companies that are ‘testing’ it in China, but that makes some sense since they have 3x the population.
Central authoritarian planning has its benefits, instead of having to wait decades while all your rich mates get their handjobs from the government and the electorate build up the will to scream for their lives in a disaster that takes lifetimes to unfold – you can just… fix it.
Honestly, if the Americans plunge the Western world into a century of humiliation over Twitter drama – at least there will be one nation on the planet carrying the torch of scientific enlightenment.
If self driving cars actually become a thing, say good bye to owning a car. It will all be subscription based. If the government is going to invest in anything be it in public transport than making some billionaires more money and making it more expensive for regular people.
because the people have no say and they don’t really care about the people.
Did you not look into Tesla, Uber, and literally almost all car manufactures trying to get into autopilot technology? Waymo from Google?
Shit like this is why
[https://komonews.com/news/local/fatal-tesla-crash-killed-motorcyclist-self-driving-system-2022-model-s-deion-glover-robotaxis-elon-musk-human-supervision-autopilot-system-sr-522-wsp#](https://komonews.com/news/local/fatal-tesla-crash-killed-motorcyclist-self-driving-system-2022-model-s-deion-glover-robotaxis-elon-musk-human-supervision-autopilot-system-sr-522-wsp#)
FWIW where I live, San Francisco, self driving cars have been around for over a year and are at the point where anyone can call one for a ride. The experience is shockingly good, and very popular.
Because we don’t have control over our people the way they do, Lemon
😂 I love how even the most banal but positive observation about China has to be prefaced with “I’m not a commie and the CCP is terrible, but”
Less than 20 years ago , the Natsec line was that China was an economic miracle, proof of the success of capitalism and so every American said the same.
Then, when it became clear that they were going to overtake us , the Pentagons opinion changed and soon after , so did the opinions of every redditor. Almost in unison.
I’m sure it’s a coincidence, such highly educated free thinkers would never be so easily influenced by propaganda.
Two things.
1) There actually are self driving taxis in a number of places in the US, like Phoenix or San Francisco.
2) I’m not aware of any Chinese AI that’s more advanced than the state of the art AI programs from American tech companies like Open AI or Google. Also if you look at the number of data centers necessary to run AI there’s a *huge* disparity between the US and China. With the US having something like 5,388 data centers compared to 449 in China.
Because leaving any kind of independence or sense of agency might lead to a revolution and overthrowing of the current government.
Plus cutting off your car privileges for having a low social credit score is much easier this way
It is plan to eliminate the skill of driving cars and add personal cars to the list of fully controlled items.
You don’t know how to drive and your car doesn’t want to drive you becouse you have low social score, are a dissident or member of unwanted minority/religion.
It is not about preparing for the future it is about more control on its citizens.
Because it’s the only country with a government run in the interests of society at large with central planning
There’s this other pressing issue called the impending climate crisis which will not be well served producing that many cars and sustained levels of individual vehicle use. Trains will.
Ever thought that maybe sometimes lack of infrastructure is what makes somewhere more desolate and disconnected? Ireland used to have a much better rail service than now
Only authoritarian countries can think of such investments.
In democartic countries, leaders are to concerned about re-election that they cannot think of any investments with outcome further than the next election.
And it’s kind of sad.
Because they are the only country with an expectation of micro-controlling every aspect of their citizens lives?
Chinas youth unemployment rate is above 20% (their public data is faked). Per cap its income in China is usd $13,000. In the U.S. it’s estimated at $66,452. In the uk it’s $46,000. In France about $39,000. Salaries are driven down by rapid deployment of things like automation.
Furthermore – China’s advancements are subsidized using tax payer dollars, and citizens savings in the form of low interest loans from state owned banks. This puts further downward pressure on aggregate incomes, and further exacerbates Chinas debt issues, as all this money is poured into low roi investments. I recall reading that every $1 the government spends on infrastructure, generates only $0.25 return.
Good luck trying to convince Americans to give up their cars
Wouldn’t a chinese self-driving car system by linked to thier social credit score?