Carmakers and industry experts have called for collaboration in building a cohesive and innovative global market for intelligent connected vehicles. This comes as China fully embraces smart cars and sets to establish a standardized and unified system for their development by 2026. Li Shuang brings us more from the opening day at the World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference held in Beijing.

Cars that can park themselves, respond to voice commands, communicate with traffic signals, and navigate complex city streets autonomously are quickly becoming reality.

LI SHUANG Beijing "At this annual exhibition, you can get a glimpse of the future of intelligent vehicles. They come with multi-screen interfaces and can communicate not just with other cars but with infrastructure and even pedestrians. They can also integrate with smart home devices, such as your air conditioner and washing machine."

China is fully on board in redefining the future of mobility and transportation. The country's pilot program aimed at putting smart connected vehicles on the road was highlighted at the conference.

ZHONG ZHIHUA Vice President & Academician, Chinese Academy of Engineering "The integration of intelligence and connectivity has become a key technical route. China is actively piloting 'vehicle-road-cloud integration,' and 20 pilot cities have organized large-scale construction projects and application initiatives."

Some researchers project that by 2025, three out of every four newly-manufactured cars in China will be intelligent connected vehicles.

HABIB TURKI Chief Development Officer Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) "China has quite an advantage, quite competitive advantage, because you guys are at the forefront of technological research and development."

Global carmakers and industry experts spoke about the importance of collaboration in shaping the future of intelligent vehicles.

HABIB TURKI Chief Development Officer Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) "The challenges, if you want, are not really in terms of technology or market adoption or consumer, it is mainly legal and it is mainly the lack of harmonization and coordination. So basically, if all the stake-holders, government, private sector, consumers come together around one table, I mean at the global level, then we'll be able to come up with some harmonized approach. And this will allow the industry to develop even further."

With companies and governments collaborating to address challenges in data sharing and regulatory alignment, the future of driving may arrive sooner than we think. Li Shuang, CGTN, Beijing.