China Ready To Leap Frog US In Allowing Self Driving Cars On The Roads

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.

mre30 - 4/5/2016 1:38:32 PM

+4 Boost

A totalitarian country is the perfect place to validate and beta test the "self-driving" car concept!

It mows down a crowd of peasants - no problem!

The car control software goes haywire and propels the helpless occupants into a cement wall at high speed - no problem!

A dissent gets in his/her car to get a quick Starbucks? The door locks click shut and the self-driving car takes the offender straight to the prison for a "show trial" and 10 years of hard labor.

What nationality is Elon Musk? Is he Russian? Come to think of it, aside from China, Russia would also be a great place to beta-test a self-driving car.

The concept is kind of like US Pharma companies doing drug trials in Africa - same moral implications.

HenryN - 4/5/2016 2:39:53 PM

-3 Boost

mre30: "What nationality is Elon Musk? Is he Russian? " -> are you really that dense mre30 ?

MDarringer - 4/5/2016 8:08:17 PM

+2 Boost

China has a population that is out of control. Autonomous cars are a form of birth control. Go for it.

W208 - 4/6/2016 12:26:52 PM

+2 Boost

Don't forget India.....somebody call Mahindra.