Bad drivers and very low accident costs will help China win with self-driving cars

China has said it will ban gas and diesel cars in the near future. Many expect China to ban new non-electric cars in 2030. Car manufacturers recognize they cannot compete with combustion engine cars in China. They are the largest market for cars in the world. About 25 million cars are sold in China versus about 17 million in all of Europe and 17 million in the USA. China’s car market is projected to grow to 30-35 million per year in the early 2020s.

Summary of reasons why China will win with electric cars and self-driving cars

* China is the biggest car market and could become bigger than Europe and US combined by 2030
* China is the biggest electric car market. They could keep selling over half of global EV sales
* the government has prioritized winning with electric cars and batteries. China will build most of the world’s batteries.
* China has some of the worst human drivers to it will be easier for self-driving cars to be better
* They have no additional damages for pain and suffering

Electric cars are more green for China and help reduce its massive air pollution problem. China also forces a jump to electric cars where it is new competition. European car makers have technological advantages with combustion cars. It will be easier to catch up with electric cars.

European manufacturers are trapped by ongoing competition in gas and diesel.

Batteries have economies of scale. China does scale better than anybody else.

China will not require self-driving cars to be perfect. China’s human drivers are two to four times more dangerous than drivers in Europe and the USA. This will also mean it will be safer for China to use more self-driving cars. This will get less safe human drivers off the roads.

It is not a requirement but the forecast is that over of the cars sold in China in 2020 will have at least partial autonomous capability.

Car accident are no-fault and fatalities cost $50,000 in China

Chinese culture, legal and insurance systems are not based finding guilt.

* Guilt is not the main focus of an inquiry of an accident
* the focus is repairing the damage and for the parties move on.
* Chinese insurance system is a no-fault system. There is no legal or financial reason to assign guilt.
* the award is limited to economic compensation. There is no high-value award for non-economic matters like pain and suffering.

A driver who kills a pedestrian in China can expect to pay a one-time payment of around $30,000-$50,000. Chinese law stipulates that the driver is responsible for the injured person’s care and disability for the remainder of their life. This has the potential to run into the millions.

Non-economic car accident damage costs in the USA and Europe

In the USA, car accident injury damages are car be triple or much more than triple for pain and suffering.

In Europe non-economic damages are usually far less than the economic damages. This is especially true in the UK. Italy and Spain have higher non-economic damages.

The UK has some of the lowest car accident costs.

59 thoughts on “Bad drivers and very low accident costs will help China win with self-driving cars”

  1. the reason to have one or more dash cameras installed to bad you cant just upload these videos to the authority’s and reckless drivers be held accountable after to many uploads.

  2. the reason to have one or more dash cameras installed to bad you cant just upload these videos to the authority’s and reckless drivers be held accountable after to many uploads.

  3. the reason to have one or more dash cameras installed to bad you cant just upload these videos to the authority’s and reckless drivers be held accountable after to many uploads.

  4. Yes, I know the stereotype but that is not analytical. China is still in some ways a Third World country and I can tell why there are more accident in Third World countries:1) People getting use to cars especially children2) Corruption – buying a license instead of passing the driving test 3) Need to learn that driving is a risky activity4) bad infrastructure5) bad cars, bad maintenance of cars, bad tires, bad brakes, etc 6) No respect for the rules of the road or not understanding the consequences of not following the rules of the roads7) Machismo – driven as a contest of manhood – road rage –

  5. I previously read a different article that highlighted that but I find it difficult to believe that most Chinese would make that amoral calculation and drive over the victim a seconds time to make sure the victim is dead. I think that the high accident rate is caused by the following:1) Bad roads, 2) people are more incline to take risk, 3) slack driving test, 4) people buying a pass on their driving test, and 5) slack car inspection and maintenance.

  6. Yes, I know the stereotype but that is not analytical. China is still in some ways a Third World country and I can tell why there are more accident in Third World countries:

    1) People getting use to cars especially children
    2) Corruption – buying a license instead of passing the driving test
    3) Need to learn that driving is a risky activity
    4) bad infrastructure
    5) bad cars, bad maintenance of cars, bad tires, bad brakes, etc
    6) No respect for the rules of the road or not understanding the consequences of not following the rules of the roads
    7) Machismo – driven as a contest of manhood – road rage –

  7. I previously read a different article that highlighted that but I find it difficult to believe that most Chinese would make that amoral calculation and drive over the victim a seconds time to make sure the victim is dead.

    I think that the high accident rate is caused by the following:

    1) Bad roads,
    2) people are more incline to take risk,
    3) slack driving test,
    4) people buying a pass on their driving test, and
    5) slack car inspection and maintenance.

  8. 10 times more accindents per car doesn’t mean anything considered that services like uber are more popular in china. The average car in china spends more time on the road every day, than the average european car. Chinese driving school is a lot about hindsight.they learn: if somebody makes a mistake, you should take care to avoid an accident. Now they make those mistakes on purpose. Drivers force others to take care. can you imagine what happens if two of these drivers meet on the road? On top of that chinese drivers don’t use seatbelts.

  9. The officials realized, that it’s hard to change chinese drivers. So they change the roads instead. Making U Turns impossible by barriers and using traffic lights for zebra crossings.

  10. I’ve been in chinese driving school and i can answer that question. First of all, chinese driving school is cheap compared to germany. So drivers don’t get that much driving expeirence. The focus is more on driving theory than actual driving praxis. Also the chinese traffic regulations are very different from what we know. there’s no right before left. And chinese police is not really punishing drivers for drivingnon the wrong lane or in the wrong direction. They may shout at the driver, but thats it. If you as a pedestrian cross a zebra crossing, make shure to keep an eye on the cars. they won’t stop for you. And they will honk. TLDRChinese driving school is bad,The road laws are badThe police doesn’t give a damn about road law violations.

  11. Do what? All they have is a record of the driver’s license. They can’t prove anything other than that.

  12. Its not not so much the driving, as it’s the being run over, repeatedly, by the same car, that’s the problem.

  13. Forget police. Tesla has a record of the driver’s licence plate. They could do something about it if it becomes an issue.”So Mr Smith… you’ve been causing our customers problems. Do you know that we have the ability to hide bodies literally millions of miles outside of California Law Enforcement jurisdiction?”

  14. As is expected for such schemes, when they are actually implemented the politicians and bureaucrats responsible almost always warp the original neat idea into making it compulsory (whether explicitly or implicitly so) or doing something like crushing the cars so that their scrap value is near zero and so the net value of the project is much worse than projected.

  15. Yeah, those videos of drivers going in for a finishing blow are kinda brutal. It’s one thing to run over someone again, it’s quite another to step out and do it by hand.Though the concept of indirect financial damage seems lost here, only direct compensation. So what happens to spouse/children of the deceased?Then there’s the life valuation itself. $50K in china (which is not an insubstantial amount of money there) versus western societies, based on insurance values and legal judgements, awarding effectively average lifetime income of the deceased, on the order of $1 million or so.

  16. A study was done that proved that if large cash trade-in incentives were put into place for the worst polluting cars still on the road, only if a fraction of them traded in (cash for clunkers!) for new cars would dramatically reduce overall pollution levels for a very cheap total price.

  17. “A driver who kills a pedestrian in China can expect to pay a one-time payment of around $30,000-$50,000.”See everyone! Solid proof that Next Big China does not value life like we do in the West.

  18. “Why are Chinese drivers much worse than American and European drivers? Their fatality rate is 10 times higher per car. “Do you really have to ask that question?

  19. Already have them in Teslas. So many of those have been in Fremont for some time and people have learned that they could safely cut off Teslas, which is causing all sorts of traffic problems. See what I wrote about this in the above.

  20. Riight…In Fremont there always were more Teslas on the roads than elsewhere. So what do non-Tesla drivers do? They deliberately cut off Telsas, because they know that the car’s auto pilot will hit the breaks no matter what. And if some poor sap is driving close behind the Telsa in a normal car, pile up city!This is why if I find myself behind a Tesla, I immediately get out of that lane or, if I can’t, I pull back and give myself a lot of stopping space between me and the Tesla. Of course, this does wonders for Fremont traffic in general…NOT.With fully automated SDCs, this problem will get real bad. People will not tolerate this. Particularly when the number of ‘problem cars’ (and those will be perceived to be the Teslas/SDCs, btw) reaches a certain ‘critical mass’ where all these driver effects just brings traffic to a snarly crawl.

  21. China is leading the world in autonomous driving, Shenzhen already has autonomous buses that are level 4 You can literally take a plane to Shenzhen right now, and hop on a autonoumous bus ———————————China also has the best EV car Nio EP9 which absolutely destroys Tesla roadster

  22. Already explained in the article, copy and paste* Guilt is not the main focus of an inquiry of an accident* the focus is repairing the damage and for the parties move on.* Chinese insurance system is a no-fault system. There is no legal or financial reason to assign guilt.* the award is limited to economic compensation. There is no high-value award for non-economic matters like pain and suffering.A driver who kills a pedestrian in China can expect to pay a one-time payment of around $30,000-$50,000. Chinese law stipulates that the driver is responsible for the injured person’s care and disability for the remainder of their life. This has the potential to run into the millions.China has “no guilt” if you maim someone you have to pay them compensation for life which can runs easily into millions. Even if it was the pedestrians fault and you are not guilty you still have to payIf you kill someone however you pay a one time fee to the family. So the wise decision is to make sure you kill the other person that way you pay far less, than dropping millions over a lifetime on someone permanently crippled

  23. Forget police. Tesla has a record of the driver’s licence plate. They could do something about it if it becomes an issue.

    “So Mr Smith… you’ve been causing our customers problems. Do you know that we have the ability to hide bodies literally millions of miles outside of California Law Enforcement jurisdiction?”

  24. As is expected for such schemes, when they are actually implemented the politicians and bureaucrats responsible almost always warp the original neat idea into making it compulsory (whether explicitly or implicitly so) or doing something like crushing the cars so that their scrap value is near zero and so the net value of the project is much worse than projected.

  25. An intermediate step would be to require automatic safety features like auto braking. These technologies are in production now.

  26. Why are Chinese drivers much worse than American and European drivers? Their fatality rate is 10 times higher per car. Is it due to there been more pedestrians on the roads? Or they have slack driving test or slack car inspections? Or do their children all walk to school from kindergarten and there are no crossing guards?

  27. “…Chinese law stipulates that the driver is responsible for the injured person’s care and disability for the remainder of their life…”This is the reason why some of the wealthy in china tries to ensure you die if they get into a serious accident with you. It’s much cheaper for them if you’re dead vs if you survive and crippled. Money has a way of exposing the depraved animal that exists below a thin veneer of civilization.

  28. Yeah, those videos of drivers going in for a finishing blow are kinda brutal. It’s one thing to run over someone again, it’s quite another to step out and do it by hand.

    Though the concept of indirect financial damage seems lost here, only direct compensation. So what happens to spouse/children of the deceased?

    Then there’s the life valuation itself. $50K in china (which is not an insubstantial amount of money there) versus western societies, based on insurance values and legal judgements, awarding effectively average lifetime income of the deceased, on the order of $1 million or so.

  29. IT will be interesting to see where the car industry is forced to go. China is a large country, were the people used to the idea of moving around as in America I doubt an electric infrastructure and batteries would work out in the short term. There is no doubt electric cars work well in a city, the generating facilities can be miles away and as such the pollution from them doesn’t enter the city. As a side note, it might be wise for planers in China to rethink some of their plans. A modern gasoline car produces nearly no pollution. It was reported years ago that a modern car exhausts cleaner air than what is found in large American cities. The problem is the number of cars that are in poor tune or are of a certain age. They are gross polluters.

  30. A study was done that proved that if large cash trade-in incentives were put into place for the worst polluting cars still on the road, only if a fraction of them traded in (cash for clunkers!) for new cars would dramatically reduce overall pollution levels for a very cheap total price.

  31. “A driver who kills a pedestrian in China can expect to pay a one-time payment of around $30,000-$50,000.”

    See everyone! Solid proof that Next Big China does not value life like we do in the West.

  32. “Why are Chinese drivers much worse than American and European drivers? Their fatality rate is 10 times higher per car. ”

    Do you really have to ask that question?

  33. Already have them in Teslas. So many of those have been in Fremont for some time and people have learned that they could safely cut off Teslas, which is causing all sorts of traffic problems. See what I wrote about this in the above.

  34. Riight…

    In Fremont there always were more Teslas on the roads than elsewhere. So what do non-Tesla drivers do? They deliberately cut off Telsas, because they know that the car’s auto pilot will hit the breaks no matter what. And if some poor sap is driving close behind the Telsa in a normal car, pile up city!

    This is why if I find myself behind a Tesla, I immediately get out of that lane or, if I can’t, I pull back and give myself a lot of stopping space between me and the Tesla. Of course, this does wonders for Fremont traffic in general…NOT.

    With fully automated SDCs, this problem will get real bad.

    People will not tolerate this. Particularly when the number of ‘problem cars’ (and those will be perceived to be the Teslas/SDCs, btw) reaches a certain ‘critical mass’ where all these driver effects just brings traffic to a snarly crawl.

  35. China is leading the world in autonomous driving, Shenzhen already has autonomous buses that are level 4

    You can literally take a plane to Shenzhen right now, and hop on a autonoumous bus

    ———————————

    China also has the best EV car Nio EP9 which absolutely destroys Tesla roadster

  36. Already explained in the article, copy and paste

    * Guilt is not the main focus of an inquiry of an accident
    * the focus is repairing the damage and for the parties move on.
    * Chinese insurance system is a no-fault system. There is no legal or financial reason to assign guilt.
    * the award is limited to economic compensation. There is no high-value award for non-economic matters like pain and suffering.
    A driver who kills a pedestrian in China can expect to pay a one-time payment of around $30,000-$50,000. Chinese law stipulates that the driver is responsible for the injured person’s care and disability for the remainder of their life. This has the potential to run into the millions.

    China has “no guilt” if you maim someone you have to pay them compensation for life which can runs easily into millions. Even if it was the pedestrians fault and you are not guilty you still have to pay

    If you kill someone however you pay a one time fee to the family.

    So the wise decision is to make sure you kill the other person that way you pay far less, than dropping millions over a lifetime on someone permanently crippled

  37. Why are Chinese drivers much worse than American and European drivers? Their fatality rate is 10 times higher per car. Is it due to there been more pedestrians on the roads? Or they have slack driving test or slack car inspections? Or do their children all walk to school from kindergarten and there are no crossing guards?

  38. IT will be interesting to see where the car industry is forced to go. China is a large country, were the people used to the idea of moving around as in America I doubt an electric infrastructure and batteries would work out in the short term. There is no doubt electric cars work well in a city, the generating facilities can be miles away and as such the pollution from them doesn’t enter the city.
    As a side note, it might be wise for planers in China to rethink some of their plans. A modern gasoline car produces nearly no pollution. It was reported years ago that a modern car exhausts cleaner air than what is found in large American cities. The problem is the number of cars that are in poor tune or are of a certain age. They are gross polluters.

  39. Keep augmenting numbers the simple Chinese way, but China does not make the best EV cars in the world and does not lead the world in autonomous driving.

  40. Keep augmenting numbers the simple Chinese way, but China does not make the best EV cars in the world and does not lead the world in autonomous driving.

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