From driverless cars to robotic warehouses, China looks to automation to get ahead of labor shortage

Between the 1940s and the 1980s, the country’s population doubled in size, from over 500 million people to more than 1 billion, according to official figures. Over the next 40 years, that growth slowed to 40%. Today, the country’s population is 1.4 billion — more than four times the size of the U.S.

However, the proportion of China’s working age population is falling.

But automation is moving beyond obvious places such as factories or warehouses…

China is pushing forward in technologies such as driverless cars which use artificial intelligence, an area that Beijing hopes to dominate in its broader technology battle with the U.S.

The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has become a major testing hub for autonomous vehicles. One start-up called WeRide is developing technology for driverless cars and buses.
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