'Chinese startup' vows autonomous car by 2020 in US

A'global startup' which makes electric racing vehicles unveiled plans Friday to sell a fully autonomous electric car in the US market by 2020. The company called Nio, founded by Chinese entrepreneur William Li and with offices in Silicon Valley, Europe and China, unveiled a prototype of the vehicle called Eve at the South by Southwest tech conference in Austin, Texas. According to a Nio statement, the car will be'a digital companion, a robot on wheels' equipped with'an artificial intelligence engine with an intuitive human interface, providing verbal and visual connections both within the vehicle and with the outside world.' The new design is more like a living room on wheels than a car. The forward two seats have an'enhanced panoramic view', with digital displays provided on the active glass when needed to support non-autonomous driving EVE has no door pillars, and interior is accessed through a wide forward-sliding door.