China's Alibaba puts internet in cars, plans to take drivers out
[HANGZHOU] Chinese tech firm Alibaba's internet-connected car will set the Chinese e-commerce giant up to quickly introduce driverless vehicle technology, Chief Technology Officer Wang Jian told Reuters on Wednesday.
Alibaba and the country's largest automaker SAIC Motor Corp demonstrated their jointly developed car equipped with the YunOS operating system, which can link up with smart phones, at an event in eastern China's Hangzhou on Wednesday. The car is slated to go on sale later this year.
"You'll quickly see driverless car technology resulting from this platform," Mr Wang said on the sidelines of the event.
Among major tech companies, Alibaba is relatively late to offer a platform that can link a smart phone to a car, trailing platforms already launched by Alphabet's Google, Apple and Baidu.
But the race to commercialise driverless cars is far from over with experts predicting that a fully autonomous car will not hit the market until 2020 or later.
REUTERS
BT is now on Telegram!
For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes
Transport & Logistics
EV automakers get reprieve in US tax credit rules
Abu Dhabi hub carrier Etihad adds banks to US$1 billion IPO
Luminar to cut nearly 20% jobs as part of restructuring
Chinese share of French EV market slumps after incentives curbed
Ferrari unveils US$423,000 sports car with 1960s bloodline
Airbus called for compensation to take on money-losing Spirit operations: sources