Driverless Vehicles Build a Highway for Driverless Vehicles
advertisement
Though a trip through Beijing has plenty of historical architecture to offer, the city’s skyline also holds many feats of modern design. However, unlike Shanghai, where most of the great structures are gathered around the Pudong bend to be viewed all at once, Beijing has spread out its contemporary landmarks throughout the city, making it difficult for architectural enthusiasts to sneak a gander at all of them. We therefore decided to gather them all into one place. Here is our list of Beijing’s most iconic modern buildings:
Last Monday, Xinhua News reported that roughly 100km of the new expressway connecting Beijing and Xiong’an had been built and that it will be open for travel in June 2021. Pretty unimpressive, save for the fact that the 100km stretch of road actually has two lanes that will be exclusively used by driverless cars, and that it was built exclusively by driverless construction vehicles. That's right, robots are coming to steal our jobs, they're stealing our road trips too.
The construction team was comprised of three pavers and six road rollers equipped with the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, which uses sensors in the vehicle to process information about the area in real-time and complete tasks accordingly. Perhaps more notable – and detrimental to us fallible mortals – is that the path's construction can be controlled within a two- to three-centimeter margin of error, which is 50 percent more accurate than if the machinery was controlled by a human hand.
With the development of cashless payments and e-commerce, WeChat and Alipay have successfully cornered the digital currency market (not to be confused with the digital cryptocurrency market). Meanwhile, more traditional financial institutions such as Union Pay have tried to find their foothold in the e-conomy sphere, albeit without much success.
That all may change, however, after Union Pay recently unveiled their first digital bank card ”银联无界卡“ (Bank Union Borderless Card, if translated literally). It has all the same features as the old Union Pay card in that it's a thin piece of plastic, however, it has a few other additions that will help it go toe-to-toe with WeChat and Alipay: namely, supplementing the traditional bank card with a digital card allowing for easier mobile payments, and a streamlined application process that can be done from Union Pay's app, eliminating the need to visit a bank branch in person (because human interaction is so 20th century).
The first batch of participating banks includes 17 national commercial banks, various regional banks, and a few international institutions. Eager to drag folks away from the comfort of Alipay and WeChat, Union Pay is rolling out a number of campaigns to drum up excitement about their new product including coupons that can be used at supermarkets and convenience stores such as Walmart, Carrefour, FamilyMart, as well as offering various rewards and discounts for making X amount of purchases with a certain time frame.
READ: Trending in Beijing: Jackie Chan’s House, Pervert Cat and Mouse, Rainbow Wows
Images: cntechpost.com, WeMP, Sina, Bold Business
advertisement