Here are 9 of the coolest and newest innovations that’s already happening in China!
9 - Four moons?
Who would come up with a fake moon?
Chinese scientists, that’s who!
C’mon you guys knew the answer because of the title of this video!
Chinese scientists are planning to launch a friggin artificial moon into orbit by 2020!
Why?
In order to illuminate city streets after dark.
This sounds a bit ambitious to us; c’mon, why not just put up some street lights?
Okay, it’s because apparently, this plan saves money!
Scientists are hoping to hang the man-made moon above the city of Chengdu, the capital
of China’s southwestern Sichuan province.
The imitation moon is basically going to be a huge illuminated satellite.
It’ll have a reflective coating to reflect sunlight back to Earth, where it will supplement
streetlights at night.
There’s an estimate that the artificial moon could be up to eight times brighter than
the actual moon.
Obviously it’ll orbit much closer to Earth at around 310 miles away, compared to the
moon’s 236,000 miles.
But the ambitious plan still wouldn’t “light up the entire night sky,” as some Chinese
citizens have feared.
Its expected brightness is supposed to be around one-fifth of normal streetlights.
Theoretically, the artificial moon could save the city of Chengdu around $173 million in
electricity costs annually.
If everything goes to plan, the first artificial moon is going to be joined by three more artificial
moons that’ll light up the night sky by 2022!
8 - Bring tha Choppa Who hasn’t ridden in an uber these days?
But one thing we know you haven’t ridden in is an Uber helicopter!
One Chinese company is looking to change that.
Chinese drone manufacturer Ehang has come up with the Ehang 184, a quadcopter passenger
drone.
Ehang has done over a thousand test flights involving human passengers, and it looks like
Ubers for the sky could be right around the corner for Chinese citizens!
This electric quadcopter can transport a passenger for up to 10 miles, or for a flight duration
of roughly 23 minutes.
You just climb in, enter where you wanna go, and sit back and pray that it doesn’t crash!
Naturally, making a process this user-friendly involved implementing obstacle avoidance sensors,
an autonomous guiding system, and the ability to take off and land vertically.
If something breaks down, a remote pilot would take over the controls.
One thing we’re sure about is that we wouldn’t be the guinea pigs for these sky taxis!
Over the hundreds of test flights that were performed, a variety of weather conditions
was involved in these tests as well.
These included high temperatures, nighttime flights, visibility-hampering fog scenarios,
and apparently, even winds that matched category 7 typhoons!
Ehang is marketing its quadcopter as a luxury ride for rich people looking to get to wherever
they’re going in a city fast.
To be honest, it’s pretty cool, but we still wouldn’t be early adopters for this no matter
how great the first tests have gone!
Would you guys ride in one of these?
Let us know in the comments!
7 - Fast Charge For any of you guys that drive a Tesla or
an electric vehicle, this is good news for you!
China built its first solar-powered highway back in 2017 in its eastern Shandong Province,
and is expected to open another one for traffic by 2022.
They’re doing this to prepare for the growing transition toward electric and driverless
vehicles.
If someone is out there testing this technology, this means that the US isn’t far behind!
China’s newest solar superhighway is located in its Zhejiang Province.
It’s going to be a six-lane expressway with solar panels that charges electric car as
they drive through and it’s also built to support automatic driving!
The road will charge electric vehicles through photovoltaic cells that provide a charging
service as cars move.
The built-in system also means that vehicles don’t have to slow down or stop to pay tolls.
The expressway will provide an adaptive road environment for automatic driving that should
reduce the number of traffic accidents and help the road keep clear of traffic jams.
6 - Wifi Password?
Think about a world where you don’t ever have to hear, “yo bro, what’s your wifi
password” again!
Back in November 2018, a Chinese company announced their planned launch of the first satellite
that will help provide free Wi-Fi worldwide!
The company, LinkSure Network, was been founded in Shanghai in 2013 and describes itself as
a mobile internet company specializing in free internet access.
Their first satellite will be launched in Northwest China’s Gansu province sometime
in 2019.
They plan on having a whopping 272 satellites in orbit delivering free internet by the end
of 2026!
The company came into existence because of regions in the world that telecom networks
can’t cover because of the difficulties installing the infrastructure needed.
Basically, we can blame some of Earth’s physical features for that one.
According to the UN, at the end of 2017, there were still a whopping 3.9 billion people who
weren’t connected to the internet!
Many global tech companies, including Google, SpaceX, and Telesat, have already launched
plans to use satellites to provide free internet.
Estimates are that there’ll be long-lasting and high-profit opportunities in the satellite
internet market, at a scale of trillions of dollars.
Because c’mon let’s face it, having access to the internet is an amazing thing, and we
all know people that can’t live without it!
5 - WeChat All Day
How many of you guys know that China is now the world’s biggest cashless marketplace?
In China, most people pay for things just by scanning a QR code with their phones.
The mobile payment market is dominated by two apps, WeChat Pay and AliPay, which have
hundreds of millions of active monthly users.
So how did this come about?
It’s because the Chinese are super quick to accept new technology.
According to a 2017 study, 92 percent of people in China’s top cities said that they use
WeChat Pay or AliPay as their primary payment method.
In addition to seemingly becoming a cashless society, China also appears to be becoming
a card-less society.
Before cashless payment systems became common, counterfeit bills were a big problem in China,
even when dispensed at ATMs!
The government even came up with new notes to counter the counterfeit ones, but the problem
still persisted.
But cashless and cardless transactions aren’t only limited to commercial transactions.
In China’s tech capital, Shenzhen, one local subway operator is testing facial recognition
subway access.
People entering the station can scan their faces on the screen where they would have
normally just tapped their phones or subway cards.
Their fare then gets automatically deducted from their linked accounts.
Of course, they’ll need to have registered their facial data beforehand and linked a
payment method to their subway account.
It’s definitely one way to get around without bringing a subway card, but having a card
is also convenient to get a visiting friend in on the subway.
4 - Dr AI As China’s population grows older, it seems
almost impossible to keep up with the soaring demand for healthcare.
China has only ONE POINT EIGHT practicing doctors per 1,000 citizens, and a typical
outpatient department in Beijing is seeing about 10,000 people PER day!
Doctors are busy is an understatement here.
Medical professionals who keep China’s healthcare system running could use a helping hand – and
artificial intelligence may be the solution.
AI can help make sense of large amounts of data, which is exactly why China is perfect
for AI development: with its 1.4 billion population, the country sits on massive amounts of data.
The Chinese government has set out an ambitious plan to turn China into the world’s leading
AI innovation center, with healthcare being only one of the industries that will benefit
the most.
In 2017, the city of Guangzhou opened the first clinic in China to diagnose cataracts
with the help of AI.
The tool is expected to save time by directing patients toward the best specialist for their
needs, allowing more patients to be treated.
Many similar initiatives are underway.
According to a Beijing-based consultancy firm, 131 Chinese companies are currently working
on applying AI in healthcare.
The goal isn’t to completely replace doctors, rather it’s to help them in their daily
work.
Because c’mon, at the end of the day, who really wants to be talking to a computer about
their health problems?!
3 - Augmented reality shopping The global VR and AR market is expected to
reach $110 billion by 2020.
And while much of the attention these technologies have drawn so far focuses on the gaming industry,
there are companies in other sectors looking to take advantage of these technologies as
well.
Take Alibaba for example.
The Alibaba Group is seeing strong potential for AR and VR for e-commerce.
Alibaba took its first step when its “Buy+” virtual store made its public debut at the
Taobao Maker Festival in Shanghai.
Buy+ allows consumers to shop in a virtual environment with 360-degree views using a
VR headset and two hand controllers.
Shoppers can browse products from bags to shoes to lingerie, and even have virtual models
showcase the apparel and accessories on a catwalk.
You would be able to also cycle through different features that offer more detailed product
information and add or take items from your shopping cart.
Buy+ has been rebranded to TaoBao buy and in the future it may be something that’s
as commonplace as a TV set in every home.
Maybe one day going to a store to check out how something looks will be a thing of the
past!
2 - No Tracks Needed Imagine a train that’s running all over
the place.
Maybe that’s a good thing, or maybe it’s not for if you’re one of those people that
love getting around on foot!
Trackless trams aren’t really trams.
Nor are they really a bus.
What they do have are rubber wheels, and they run on streets.
“Trackless trams” are based on the technology in high-speed rails except you’re putting
them in a bus.
The point is, it wasn’t created to run over people a la Grand Theft Auto style just for
the fun of it.
It was created because it’s environmentally-friendly and actually pretty comfortable to ride in.
Trackless trams can replace the noise and emissions of buses with electric traction.
Batteries can be recharged at stations in 30 seconds at each stop, or recharged even
more at the end of a line in 10 minutes.
That could just be an electric bus, but this tram is much more.
It has all the speed, capacity, and ride quality of light rail.
However, these trams are optically guided by GPS and LIDAR technologies.
This means that they can move very precisely down to millimeters along an invisible track!
But don’t worry, they do still come with a driver in case anything weird happens.
But trackless trams are becoming a reality because of the worst feature of light rail.
That’s having to lay down tracks for a city.
It can take years to lay rail tracks, causing major disruption to local economies.
The “tracks” for this tram are easy to implement, since it’s physically non-existent,
and it can be put into a road system over a single weekend!
1 - Attack of the Drones
Chinese companies are going all-out on unmanned systems for delivery logistics.
A fleet of new autonomous cargo drones, robotic trucks, and fast quadcopters are making China
a future world leader in robotics.
Alibaba is planning to start mass producing the world's first solid-state LiDAR delivery
robot, which uses a laser-based guidance system to navigate roads without the need for a human.
The G Plus, which is a four-wheeled small truck, has a top speed of 10 mph.
Once it reaches its destination, customers can unlock it using an app or a passcode.
JD.com, China's second-largest e-commerce firm, started robotic delivery of packages
in Beijing, on a university campus.
JD is going all-in on automated logistics, with a $4 and a half billion dollar AI hub
in Guangdong, 200 delivery drone airports, and fully automated warehouses.
Hey, now they only need to figure out how to make sure packages don’t get stolen after
they’ve been left on the porch!
Here’s what’s next!