Headline, February 03 2025/ TECH : ''' FUTURES -CHINA- FULCRUM '''

TECH : 

''' FUTURES -CHINA- FULCRUM '''

'' STUDENTS  - ' ROBOTS - DRONES - SELF-DRIVING VEHICLES ' '' : As an American reporter living in Beijing - I've watched both China and the rest of the world flirt with cutting-edge tech : robots, drones and self-driving vehicles.

But China has now raced far beyond the flirtation stage. It's rolling out fleets of autonomous delivery trucks, experimenting with flying cars and installing parking lot robots that can swap out your E.V.'s dying battery in just minutes. There are drones that deliver lunch by lowering it from the sky on a cable.

If all that sounds futuristic and perhaps bizarre, it also shows China's ambition to dominate clean energy technologies of all kinds, not just solar panels or battery-powered cars, then sell them to the rest of the world.

China has incurred huge debts to put trillions of dollars into efforts like these, along with the full force of its state-powered economy.

These ideas, while ambitious, don't always work smoothly, as I learned after taking a bullet train to Hefei to see what it's like to live in this vision of tomorrow. Hefei is one of many cities where technologies like these are getting prototyped in real time.

I checked them all out. The battery swapping robots, the self-driving delivery trucks, the lunches from the sky.

HEFEI FLYING CARS : Hefei is one of the first Chinese cities to issue permits for what are basically flying cars, so I booked a ride. 

The goal of the experiment is taxi-like service between stations around town. Six other cities are working on similar projects.

The first snag : I was four pounds [ 1.8 kilograms ] too heavy. These aren't built for six-foot-four Americans. Instead our photographer, Qilai Shen, climbed in.

The two-seater is piloted remotely, not by someone sitting next to you. They can travel 25 minutes on a charge and go about 80 miles. [ 130 kilometers ] per hour.

'' A lot of vibration, but not in a scary way,'' Qilai said of the ride. '' Like sitting on one of those tractors lawn mowers.''

BATTERY-SWAPPING ROBOTS : Of course, far more people get around by car. And navigating Hefei's city streets shows how China has radically transformed the driving experience.

Electric vehicles [including models with a tiny gasoline engine for extra range] have accounted for more than half of new-car sales in China every month since March. A subcompact can cost as little as $9,000.

They are quite advanced. New models can charge in as little as five minutes. China has installed 18.6 million public charging stations, making them abundant even in rural areas and all but eliminating the range anxiety holding back E.V. sales in the United States.

Essentially, China has turned cars into sophisticated rolling smartphones. Some have built-in karaoke apps so you entertain yourself while your car does the driving. You still need to charge, though.

In Hefei, plug-in stations are as long as football fields.

And drive-through battery-swapping stations are routine. While you wait, a robot plucks out your car's drained battery and pops in a new one. 

Cars pull into cube-like garages. It takes three minutes, about as long as you might spend at a traditional gas pump. A driver backs into the cube, then a hatch opens beneath the car to do the swap.

This Master Publishing continues. The World Students Society thanks Keith Bradsher and photographer Qilai Shen.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See You all prepare for the great '' Constitutional Democratic Convention '' on !WOW! : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter X !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - The Voice Of The Voiceless