China – Page 6 – Impact Lab

Alternative Transportation, China, drones, Science & Technology News

Chinese passenger drone maker EHang is said to file for U.S. IPO

October 1, 2019

An EHang Inc. E-184 drone.

Technology startup is working on producing passenger drones.

EHang may raise as much as $200 million in public offering.

EHang, one of China’s largest drone makers, has made a confidential application for an initial public offering with Nasdaq Inc., according to people with knowledge of the matter.

EHang plans to float 10% to 15% of its shares, with the company’s valuation not yet set due to volatile market conditions, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. EHang may raise as much as $200 million in the IPO, one of the people said.

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Bitcoin, Blockchain, China, government, Science & Technology News

China plans to kill most of the world’s bitcoin mining operations

September 25, 2019

The price could spike again.

The Chinese government will end bitcoin mining operations in the coming months, Bloomberg reported over this January, a move that could have a massive impact on the price of the world’s biggest digital currency.

China has been a central player in the development of bitcoin in recent years, but Beijing has spent the last six months cracking down on the cryptocurrency industry — shutting down local exchanges and banning initial coin offerings.

Leaked documents suggest the Chinese government plans an “orderly exit” for bitcoin mining operations in the coming weeks and months.

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China, Human Behavior, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Why millions of Chinese men are staying single

September 18, 2019

The gender gap is a big problem in the Middle Kingdom – and its ‘leftover men’ are going to great lengths to find a wife.

In China, there is a name for unmarried men over 30. Shengnan, meaning “leftover men” have yet to find a wife – and in a country with a growing gender gap, that’s a big problem.

By 2020, it’s estimated there will be 30 million more men than women looking for a partner

China has many millions more men than women, a hangover of the country’s one-child policy, which was overturned in 2015, though its effects will last decades more. The gender imbalance is making it hard for many men to find a partner – and the gap is likely to widen. By 2020, it’s estimated there will be 30 million more men than women looking for a partner. In his book, The Demographic Future, American political economist Nicholas Eberstadt cites projections that by 2030, more than a quarter of Chinese men in their 30s will not have married.

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Automobiles, China, Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News

China’s autonomous vehicles to reach 1.5 million units by 2025

September 9, 2019

China’s autonomous car market is expected to reach 1.5 million units by 2025, growing on a compound annual growth rate of 28.4%.

According to the latest study by ResearchandMarkets.com, the automotive industry is China is likely to shift into a higher intelligence level by 2025. At present, the L1 and L2 autonomous vehicles are available in the market, with total sales of 300,000 units in 2018. In the passenger car segment, 96.5% of autonomous vehicles are L1 and L2 private cars.

However, the study predicts that in the years ahead autonomous vehicle technology will see more adoption in passenger cars business segments such as public taxis and mobility service vehicles. Public taxis and other mobility service vehicles will account for a little more than a quarter or 25.6% of the passenger car market share in 2025.

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China, Report, Science & Technology News, Self-driving Cars

China’s driverless future farther off than first thought, report predicts

August 29, 2019

As a number of Chinese tech companies put the pedal to the metal in the race to dominate the autonomous vehicle industry, a major global information provider is proceeding with caution with regard to predicting the industry’s near-term growth

Driverless cars won’t be widely available for online hire in China until around 2025, according to a report published Friday by London-based research firm IHS Markit.

While researchers recognized the potential of autonomous vehicles to make travel more efficient, they warned that the need for policymakers to regulate emerging industries will put the brakes on the switchover from conventional vehicles.

Nonetheless, by 2035 China is expected to be home to some 33.6 million autonomous vehicles, around 10% of the world’s total, the report added.

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China, Energy, Science & Technology News, Solar Power

Solar energy prices hit tipping point as China reaches “grid parity”

August 26, 2019

It’s a landmark moment for China and the world.

The world’s most populous country has reached a tipping point in the pursuit of renewable energy.

China, which aims to consume 20 percent of its energy from non-fossil fuels by 2030, has reached a point where home-generated solar is cheaper than electricity generated from the national grid. The research, conducted by researchers in both Sweden and China and published in the journal Nature Monday, mark an historic moment in the drive to ditch fossil fuels.

The switchover point comes soon after a report that showed a similar crossover in the United States. The report in March showed that in 74 percent of cases, building new solar and wind capacity in a given area was cheaper than maintaining an existing coal-powered plant. Where levelized costs for wind reach $15 per megawatt-hour and $28 per megawatt-hour for solar, marginal costs for existing plants can jump as high as $104 per megawatt-hour.

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Batteries, China, Electric Automobile, Electric Vehicles, Science & Technology News

Chinese shadow growing longer over India’s electric-vehicle dream

August 19, 2019

India’s dream of getting more and more middle-class families to use electric vehicles (EVs) seems to be hinging to Beijing, which controls the supply of some key battery components. And this might well become another flashpoint in the volatile relations between India and China.

With nations placing a strategic interest in controlling the supply chain, political interference in mining activities is increasingly making the availability of lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper scarce, EV major Tesla has warned. India might soon have to join a global struggle for Lithium, the most consequential of these minerals.

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Automation, China, Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News

Autonomous sweepers keep roads clean in major Chinese cities

August 16, 2019

Over 100 of these self-driving vehicles, which automatically clean and water road surfaces, are already in operation.

When designing systems to anticipate what other drivers and pedestrians will do, automakers are finding that building self-driving vehicles is turning out to be harder, slower, and costlier than they thought. The same may not be true of limited application commercial vehicles, which may be adopted far sooner than driverless cars. Consider street-sweeping sanitation vacuums, for example—they’re essential to keeping any large city or town looking neat and clean.

Street sweepers in part take other vehicles and people out of the equation because drivers and pedestrians are accustomed to avoiding these vehicles when they’re encountered on the road.

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China, Entertainment, mobile technology, Science & Technology News, Video

Chinese vertical dramas made for phone viewing show the future of mobile video

August 1, 2019

Mobile video is a big deal, but you don’t need me to tell you that. Big Tech has been fast-moving into the mobile video space for a few years now, and recently a slew of mobile-specific content has arrived.

Instagram launched IGTV in 2018, and is pushing creators to explore what’s possible for mobile video. Netflix introduced vertical 30-second previews, and is now experimenting with mobile-first features like vibrating movies. Spotify is releasing vertical music videos. Snap is delivering plenty of premium mobile video content with its Snap Originals, and has more on the way.

But compared to traditional videos which have been around since 1895, mobile video is still a newborn baby. And for new parents, a good way to learn parenting is to look at what others are doing. On that note, mobile video producers should direct their attention to a format Chinese media companies have been experimenting with: the vertical drama (竖屏剧; shùpíngjù).

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Cancer, China, government, Science & Technology News

The U.S. is purging Chinese cancer researchers from top institutions

June 25, 2019

The NIH and the FBI are targeting ethnic Chinese scientists, including U.S. citizens, searching for a cancer cure. Here’s the first account of what happened to Xifeng Wu.

The dossier on cancer researcher Xifeng Wu was thick with intrigue, if hardly the stuff of a spy thriller. It contained findings that she’d improperly shared confidential information and accepted a half-dozen advisory roles at medical institutions in China. She might have weathered those allegations, but for a larger aspersion that was far more problematic: She was branded an oncological double agent.

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Bitcoin, China, Green Friendly, Science & Technology News

Bitcoin mining is shockingly mostly powered by green energy

June 19, 2019

A game-changing CoinShares report reveals that three-quarters of bitcoin mining is done using renewable energy including hydroelectric power.

By CCN: Contrary to popular opinion, it appears that Bitcoin mining might not be as bad for the environment as people think. In a highly detailed report, CoinShares research reveals that 74% of mining activity runs on renewable energy.

“We show that Bitcoin mining is mainly located in global regions where there are ample supplies of renewable electricity available. And…we calculate a conservative estimate of the renewables penetration in the energy mix powering the Bitcoin mining network at 74.1%, making Bitcoin mining more renewables-driven than almost every other large-scale industry in the world.”

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