The Mercedes-Benz F 015 autonomous driving concept car attracts attention at the Shanghai autoshow in April 2015.LOU DINGHE/CHINA DAILY
Recent research has found Chinese are open to paying more to have auto-driving features in their vehicles and the country is expected to become the largest market for autonomous vehicles in 20 years.
United States management consulting company Boston Consulting Group reported in January that nearly 40 percent of customers in China are willing to pay more than $5,000 for a fully autonomous function. The country ranked eighth among the 10 countries with the most consumers willing to pay for such a function, with Japan, India, and France having about 50 percent of surveyed customers willing to do so.
The company polled about 6,000 consumers from 27 cities in 10 countries, with about one-tenth of the respondents being Chinese consumers.
"Surprisingly, the No 1 reason for using autonomous vehicles is 'no need to park the car'," said Nikolaus Lang, senior partner and managing director of BCG Munich.
BCG found 43.5 percent of the surveyed drivers want their car to "drop me off, find a parking spot and park on its own," and the number two benefit is to "allow me to multi-task or be productive during the drive", with 39.6 percent of respondent selecting that in the survey.
Lang said, "Autonomous driving technology is expected to reduce 8 percent of traffic looking for parking spaces."
Thomas Dauner, global leader of BCG's Automotive practice, said: "People spend on average one hour a day in a car. The driver will be able to use that time for reading and replying to e-mails, and work one hour less every day."
Ease of parking
Many carmakers included semi-autonomous parking functions last year. These models are volume products already imported to the Chinese market.
BMW launched remote parking that allows the driver to stand outside the new 7-Series and park using the Display Key. Volkswagen's trained parking system makes the e-Golf capable of driving to the spot by itself through a path recorded earlier. A Volvo V60 can find its way to a designated spot, and drive out of the lot, locate and stop in front of the user.
Premium carmakers were eager to demonstrate last year their fully autonomous driving capabilities allowing drivers to be hands off on public roads, including Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW, Volvo and Cadillac.
Tesla said it would upgrade the software in its current models remotely by mobile telecommunications to make all its vehicles capable of autonomous driving.
