I Took China's Futuristic Self-Driving Bus (Safe?!)
check it out they have a bus here without a driver it's a self-driving bus I am in Guangzhou, southern China and in this video we are going to take a self-driving bus that operates here in the city this feels futuristic here while I'm trying to find this bus I will show you around we will get some First Impressions try some local food and I will also show you two more futuristic things I came across here so what's Guangzhou like and how futuristic is China really let's find out feel free to join and welcome to Guangzhou today is my first day here I just left my hotel I arrived yesterday evening and now we're getting some very first impressions of this mega city here yeah over 20 million people are living here and I'm coming from a small village in Germany so this is like a different world from me totally so I'm quite excited to have a look around and take you guys with me and also have a look at this there are so many bicycles here that you can rent you can just scan the QR code here and then pay via an app and then you can rent these bicycles here to cruise around the town and I remember when I was in Shanghai I also saw many of these bikes all around the city and also we have all these electric scooters here cruising around the town very quiet they make almost zero noise and I have to feeling that these are required to be electric also most of the cars here or at least many seem to be electric and therefore the noise level is actually quite low so actually that's also very surprising first impression you arrive in a city of over 20 million people and the first thing you think is wow it's got to be chaotic loud but no that's not the case it's actually quite quiet here as you can hear so we have a big Main Road here but you almost hear nothing and yeah I am not sure how many of the cars are actually electric but my impression is that it's a lot of cars here so very good first impressions here no chaos very clean seems to be well organized maybe you saw my previous video of my arrival here we already got some first impressions of the Metro system and well the huge buildings here a that looks interesting oh we can buy something here on the streets oh some bracelets hello niow what are you selling here oh some bracelets oh amulets here oh that looks interesting Chu chenu what is that I don't speak [Music] Chinese uh how much 15 maybe she means 15 I'm not sure let's see uh oh I don't speak [Laughter] Chinese no English English no English no Chinese let's see if we can buy something from her despite the language where we are 100 100 how much for the bracelet uh maybe this one the green one yeah I think she's also getting out a translator yeah you have to work your way around the language barrier which is totally fine I don't expect that people here speak English this is China not England 50 you have a little bit cheaper let's see if we can bargain here I'm not sure if you can bargain in China 45 how about let's see if I can make a counter offer 30 she's smiling okay okay this one okay okay okay okay Che thank you very much okay bye-bye bye-bye bye-bye oh and just like that we bought something from a lovely lady here on the street I found a little Park along the way and something that I see all around the city are people cleaning you see the the guy with the with the blue uh jacket there he's swiping the floor and you see that actually all around the cities that there are people probably employed by the by the city cleaning the roads and that leads to a very clean environment here you can see this park here super clean nothing to complain about nice little spot to hang out it is a Sunday early afternoon now so you can see families here there's even water let's have a closer look actually oh we do have a map here oh also an English here that is quite convenient oh actually it looks like a quite big Park here right oh check it out that looks lovely and wow I like views like this with a big skylight in the background oh I love that well we have a vending machine here but I'm not sure how to pay here and everything is in Chinese here yeah there are some difficulties that you come across when being in China as a foreigner but I would like to try to figure it out now let's see if I can get a Sprite ah you can scan it with alipay let's try I have alipay now and yes payment successful it worked I was able to get a Sprite here so once you're connected with the Chinese apps everything is more convenient here I got a Sprite and what I like here same as Coca-Cola they don't write Sprite on it they have a Chinese translation on it and China's actually the first country that I travel to where they actually translate the drinks like Coca-Cola and Sprite even if you are in like Thailand or Malaysia the Philippines they write Sprite on it the English word but here they have a different word written on it and also here another person cleaning the floor this is now I think the third person already that I see in this park cleaning and I'm here for only 5 minutes yeah hello wow I love sceneries like this this is a beautiful Park a beautiful Sunday afternoon here you are surrounded by all these huge skyscrapers here a I really like the city so far maybe let me quickly compare to Shanghai maybe some of you have seen my videos in Shanghai from a few weeks ago and Shanghai and guango now are the only two cities I have ever visited in mainland China so let me do a quick comparison to my first impressions obviously I'm just here for this is my first day here so less than 24 hours but my Impressions so far are it is actually quite similar to Shanghai in terms of uh it looks organized it is clean modern buildings but I do have the impression that Shanghai is a bit richer which I think Shanghai is a richer city than guango so it feels a bit more rich and Posh in Shanghai and I also think that Shanghai is a bit more modern but uh these are just literally my first impressions so if you have been to both of these cities as well maybe you can let me know your thoughts about it in the comments and yeah in case you don't know yet I'm going to travel around China on this trip so I'm not only going to stay here in guango I have other cities on my list to visit so if you're curious to follow the journey feel free to subscribe to the channel you know what's always very interesting for me when I am in a new country just to witness the daily life of the locals this is a regular Sunday afternoon today and just walking around here and see what the locals are doing I don't know maybe it's just Me Maybe it sounds very boring for you but I really enjoy just have a walk around and just witness the daily life of the local like check it out the children's are too fast the mom is chasing them little random things like this which are pretty normal in every country you know I would say in every country that I travel to in the end the people all over the world are all the same doing the same daily things 99% of the people around the world are very friendly and welcoming but moments like this are always moments that I really enjoy while traveling and this reminds me once again that yeah I just love traveling and experiencing new countries check it out I have an interesting looking Stadium here which I don't think it's a sports Stadium because there's no field here and it's not totally a 360° with seats I think it's probably a stadium for concerts or events and this actually looks unique I'm not sure what these pillars here are for reminds me a little bit of uh have you seen the Harry Potter movies The crage Stadium but I am getting hungry what I'm missing is some street food here now you know little stalls selling some food oh I think this is the center point here this is the middle of the the area yeah right in the center huh pretty cool view here there are so many green areas here that's also something that I noticed in Shanghai already the city has a lot of green areas Parks spread around the city it seems to be the same case here as well so when you live here you actually have a lot of places where you can just go chilling especially on the weekends enjoy the sun enjoy the weather check this kite out I think this is the longest kite I've ever seen starting right there there's an old man and he's like making it longer and longer wow this is insane must be like maybe like 50 to 60 of these little kites stick together and I also want to show you something that I came across in my hotel earlier check it out there's a robot here and I think the robot is delivering something to the room here oh that is very interesting and now the robot is just driving away again welcome to China this is incredible let's follow the a [ __ ] oh wow what's it saying working do not disturb let's see how is the robot taking the elevator it says waiting so how does the elevator know that the robot is waiting maybe the elevator is connected to the robot wow the robot knows that the elevator is here now and it's going into the elevator wow guys I'm out of words this is the first time I see this WOW have a look at this we have street food here as well that looks good actually hello what is this with egg ah okay one please okay five okay not sure what it is but I'm happy to try I think he meant this is with egg so egg and then Flor so maybe like a little pancake we also have sausages here okay let's see any okay okay ah I think there's egg inside W looks like a little pancake filled with egg I think that's what it is um my my no just a few pip okay thank you all right I think it is very hot maybe too hot for me to eat it right here you don't find street food everywhere like in Southeast Asia in Thailand for example or Malaysia but you can find little stalls here and there okay so it looks like this it smells actually it smells sweet I think the dough might be sweet and then we have a yeah basically a fried egg here here you can see it a fried egg as a filling let's give it a try yeah the dough is sweet the dough is sweet and I think there's also bacon inside here bacon or ham not sure but wow this is actually very delicious I like the combination of the sweet dough and then the Savory filling with the egg and the the ham or bacon oh this is a great little snake just 5 and I was walking around for over an hour here now I'm close to 20,000 steps so a little bite like this is perfect oh and I think there are also small pieces of tomato here I can also a taste of tomato I think and the last bite is just pure dough any adjusted dough tastes like a regular sweet pancake oh that was very delicious very nice so this possible to also find a little bit of street food here but yeah not as much as in Southeast Asian countries okay but I'm actually hungry for some proper food and there's a restaurant right here that looks good Chinese food let's see what I can get here okay what I order it now is LA Tan sauerkraut beef noodles and what's interesting is that sour Crow actually is a German name so the English translation translate it to sour Crow do you also use the word sauerkraut in English it is a German word but yeah I heard before that in some parts of China sauerkraut is actually very popular I like the open kitchen area here so you can basically see how they prepare the food here so everything is of course freshly prepared and I actually saw that many Chinese restaurants before that you have this type of design like an open kitchen area here which I actually like when you go to a restaurant in Germany it's always like I can't remember seeing an open kitchen area like this ever in a German restaurant It's Always Somewhere hidden and there's my food already oh shishy thank you very much oh that actually looks like a huge portion this is way bigger than I was expecting but wow this looks delicious so we have the beef here we have the sauerkraut we have noodles some vegetables and wow we also have some beans here oh oh wow and that smells delicious and then wow this is I think the biggest spoon I've ever seen maybe I'm going to eat this wrong now not sure how you actually use the spoon maybe you put the noodles like this on the spoon maybe this is completely wrong I'm not sure oh this definitely felt wrong because the spoon is way too big to fit it in the mouth actually okay the first impression is actually kind of sour I guess that's coming from the sour crowd so it's a sour meal oh the beef the beef is really really good not chewy sometimes beef is a bit chewy but this is very smooth very easy to eat and then oh we actually do have a lot of noodles in here I think the noodles are quite regular I would say nothing too special but what makes this dish special is the the sour taste to it usually I'm not a huge fan of sour dishes but this actually is quite nice it's not too sour but you can definitely taste the sourness okay I finished everything what's left is only the broth and what's interesting here is you have a little section of the table here which you can open and then you have tissues too Pickers but you need to know about that I was just asking for tissues and then he said oh it's right here and what's also interesting what I noticed that it seems to be the case that in most Chinese restaurants you always have to pay first before you eat eat which in Germany where I am from It's usually the other way around unless it's a fast food restaurant okay I just took the metro to the Canon Tower station and this is the tower probably the famous the most famous building here in grango but I am not here for the tower I am here to find something very unique so this is the River Front next to the Canton Tower which actually looks pretty beautiful it's a very nice place to chill have a little walk around you can have a view over the water here the river then you have the skyline over there and then what a cool area to just ww around sit down a little bit have a coffee or a tea together with friends there are also some boats here which I think uh looks like a restaurant maybe I see tables on the on the top there so maybe this is a restaurant boat as well hello what are you doing here I think he can do my signature here design my signature so we have to pay 18 un and then then he gives me a set of different options and what do I have to write here your name my name so he's transforming it now into signatures let's have a look what he's doing here okay he's redesigning the letters basically writing it in a more beautiful way so each of the fields that he's uh filling out now has a different meaning so the first one is like a business signature so everything in different designs are now but yeah you can still recognize my name oh that looks very beautiful oh nice here thank you so I have a little souvenir here bought right uh in front of the famous Canton Tower right here oh we also have the tower here oh yeah oh sh thank you very much check it out they have a bus here without a driver it's a self-driving bus Which operates here in Gro without a driver that is very interesting so we have all the the cameras here which the bus definitely needs and then let's figure out how to use this bus so we have cameras at the back as well so there's actually a person in there which is like uh the operator but he's not actually driving the bus he's just supervising everything because as far as I understand this is still in the testing mode so I can pay as well here with alipay you just scan it and then you have Al pay payment here this Field's futuristic here safe driving bus I'm not sure if I'm worried or scared a little bit maybe but I mean this is there's still a person here supervising everything so I feel actually safe to be honest okay he told me to put on the seat belt obviously my first time in a safe driving bus in a safe driving vehicle in general so let's see what's happening here so he's not doing anything wow oh wow this feels weird at some point okay so it's stopping automatically at the red light show you show you he's talking with the bus what did he say to adjust the temperature to 18° so he can verbally say he wants lower temperature and then the bus reacts with putting the temperature lower wow any yeah check it out he's not doing anything with his hands and also the feet there's no accelerator or something and the bus is just selfly operating around the streets here now I can imagine in like 20 30 years this is going to be very normal probably all around the world but I already can experience this here in 2024 and China also there's a button here which probably can stop the bus immediately in case anything does go wrong also it's not the fastest bus I think I read before that is around 40 or maximum speed is 40 km per hour probably also still for safety reason that we're not speeding along the streets here okay so we have red light which the bus noticed and it's stopping and it's stopping perfectly at the right line so there was a bicycle driving bik and you could see in the screen the object or the bicycle driver appeared on the screen and then it turned red so there was like a warning signal so the bus really detects if people are in front of the bus oh and by the way check out this car here oh wow okay I'm wondering now why does the bus change the lane how does the bus know when to change the lane okay there's traffic coming from the side and the bus slows down yeah you can see on the screen that the objects in front of us are being detected and we have a bus stop here now yeah the bus automatically stops at the stop and then we have someone going in no and the steering wheel is turning automatically and we're going back on the road to be honest it feels a little bit weird but I enjoy it more than I am worried now ah yeah so here you have also a map for the stops so it's one I think we're doing a circle basically what's also interesting here at these stops he's not pressing a button or something to like close the door doors are open the doors everything is automatic in here the guy is literally just sitting here seems to be the easiest job in the world to be honest let me know in the comments if you would uh like to try one of these buses or would you be too scared or worried let me know oh we're doing a U-turn here now oh there's incoming traffic oh oh oh okay the bus is waiting let the the German car passing by the Audi okay and now we continue the journey so the bus did detect the traffic coming from the side and we did a successful U-turn here okay and about 20 minutes later we are back where we started that was very very interesting so you can see or we do actually have an accelerator and the brake there which has probably for emergency purposes but you could see he didn't do anything with his feet to hold right and he also didn't use the steering wheel very interesting thank you very much thank you wow what a great experience a self-driving bus here in China okay they also have Street robots here for cleaning the city wow so there are cameras everywhere here and then there's a robot picture here and then I guess if this thing is turned on then it just automatically drives around the streets here cleaning it you can see here the things that he uses to clean the roads so we have robots for cleaning the streets we have robots delivering food in the hotel and we have to self driving bus okay and in the next video I actually will be joined by a local friend and she will show us around some food spots and yeah I'm having great first impressions here I am very excited to be back in China many more videos from China are about to come and if you're curious to see my previous video my arrival here in guango then feel free to check it out right here stay healthy stay positive and then see you on the next episode ciao guys
2024-02-02 17:25
