China Building Highways that Charge Your Self -Driving Car

April 30, 2019, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

China is home to 1.49 Billion people and approximately 185.15 million privately owned vehicles. The number of privately-owned vehicles continues to explode as the population becomes wealthier. China has also entered the automobile manufacturing sector globally and is keen to compete in the global market, hoping to become a contender globally for passenger cars outside its home market.

Firms such as state owned Shanghair Automotive, Beijing Automotive and Donfeng Motors along with privately owned Geely, Great Wall and BYD are attempting to seize the opportunity to become a world leader in self-driving cars.

As part of this strategy they are building a site to test autonomous cars under highway conditions with an eye to leading in technologically advanced self-driving cars. The test area will use a portion of existing highway, but they are also building another 26 kilometre section in Shandong province. They hope to have the site operational by September.

The stretch of highway which links two major cities has been closed to usual traffic and includes tunnels, toll bridges, toll stations, slopes and multi lanes. The test area will have Lidar systems, weather stations, sensors and intelligent traffic signs to facilitate data exchange between cars, users and roadway. If this is like most Chinese government backed efforts the test area will be effective and will advance the capabilities of the technology.

China has already begun testing many of the technologies that will be required to roll out self-driving cars on other strips of highway. Some stretches of highway will reportedly be able to generate electricity by paving roads with solar panels. This would allow them to become a dominating force in global renewable energy as well. If the highway can generate power and recharge cars as they drive then many of the current pitfalls of electric cars will be solved.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

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