Business | Consumer electronics in China

From followers to leaders

Why the Chinese will increasingly set the trends in gadgetry

Introducing the latest in feather-duster technology
|SHANGHAI

IT IS a courageous foreigner who drives on China’s roads. A combination of tens of millions of inexperienced drivers and a general disregard for traffic rules makes them among the world’s deadliest. Braver still would be the car manufacturer that dares to put a car loaded with automated-driving features on such roads. Western notions of what is a safe distance between cars mean little in China. How could an autonomous vehicle conceived for orderly Germanic roads cope with such anarchy?

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “From followers to leaders”

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