Fossil fueled car is dying out in China

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"The countdown for fossil fueled cars has begun."

"Start collecting data now, or your company will be dead."

"Young people prefer renting a shared car than owning one."

These are comments made by China's auto industry experts during their discussion at "China Smart Car Summit" held in Beijing today.

And here is what they talked about.

Energy is the key

Electric cars, as proven by Tesla, can be the future of cars.

This is what Xu Dingming believes. Xu used to be the director general of the Energy Bureau at China's National Development and Reform Commission.

Xu talks at the summit. /Photo from iwenfeng.cn

The 71-year-old oil expert now serves as a State Council Counselor, and sees electricity the future power source of vehicles.

"I'm good in energy research, so I talk about cars from the energy perspective," Xu said in his speech at the summit, "The clock is ticking for fossil fueled cars. Companies focusing on those types will fall like the phone department of Nokia."

Xu also gave his full support to domestically-built self-driving cars.

"My eyes are not working so well now, so I can't drive. That's why I'll be the first customer of Chinese self-driving technology. You guys in the industry should make it happen as soon as possible, because I am waiting!" Xu called on the stage.

Stay practical

Instead of dreaming about the future, some experts prefer to talk about what the industry can do right now.

An Qingheng is one of them. He's the leader of the Consulting Committee of China's Auto Industry.

An explains his idea. /Photo from iwenfeng.cn

"I worked for the traditional auto industry for decades, and I choose to stay piratical," he told the participants.

"Like self-driving," he explained, "it's not the right time to make driver-less cars, but we can utilize some of the functionalities."

"Assistant driving is cool right now, and can be implemented without controversies," he added, "Auto Emergency Braking, or the AEB, can also save many lives."

He said self-driving should be realized step-by-step.

'We need standard'

Making cars is just one step. Repairing them can also be a big potential market for AI and other high-tech to step in, as introduced by Zhang Xuehui, who works at the China Automotive Maintenance and Repair Trade Association.

"People get smart car systems from different sources," Zhang said, "We need a standard to make sure they can be fixed when things break."

In general, experts in the summit agreed that smart system is the current trend of the auto industry, but there are still a lot of problems to solve.

Further discussions will be made in January 2018 in Beijing.