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Re:Baidu’s self-driving cars begin public test in Wuzhen, China by seanmcdirmid on Thursday November 17, 2016 @03:10PM (#12981007)
China lacks road infrastructure in dense cities, and lacks the room to build what it actually needs. By moving to self driving cars from say taxis, road usage can be increased dramatically (closer following distances, faster speeds, cooperative traffic control). It isn't the cost of the driver that is the issue here, it isn't the same benefit as we are expecting for the USA.

People in china are already ok with Uber, didi, and of course taxis. The private car was more about prestige and convenience (availability), not sure what to do about the former, but the latter is fixable easily enough.

Re:Baidu’s self-driving cars begin public test in Wuzhen, China by kpil on Thursday November 17, 2016 @03:33PM (#12981220)
In Europe, during the 18th and 19th century, the kings and emperors decided that they wanted grand esplanades and straight roads so they could have nice parades, preferably between some nice castles or parks. So they just demolished everything that was in the way. But hey! Marching in cool hats!

I am not sure about U.S, but my guess is that the cities started to grow a little bit later, the people probably looked at the European kings cool-looking roads, and probably decided that they could do even better and just went for an even cooler looking grid instead just some avenues scattered here and there!