It's a bus!

It's a train!

No, it's...actually,

I'm still trying to figure that out.

Hi, welcome to China Uncensored,

I'm your host, Chris Chappell.

Chinese state-run media has unveiled this:

A driverless train

that runs on city roads without tracks.

They call it the Autonomous Rapid Rail Transit.

And oh man,

is this going to be one heck

of a Communist Party train.

Just check out this video from Xinhua News!

And yes,

this is the original music.

This train is gonna party non stop.

If you're still confused about what this

thing is,

state-run CGTN also made a promo video.

I guess they used the elevator music remix.

The train was unveiled in Zhuzhou city

in Hunan province.

In many urban areas in China,

traffic congestion is a major problem.

The train can hold up to 307 passengers,

and can reach top speeds of just over

40 miles per hour.

Which is faster than it will ever need to go

in Zhuzhou's traffic.

The train is also cheaper to build

than subways or conventional light rails.

So it's a driverless,

environmentally-friendly electric train

that runs on virtual tracks

and can carry hundreds of people.

Ok, that actually sounds pretty good.

But I am pretty confused

by the promotional videos.

Because they seem to say one thing

and show the opposite.

First, they call it a train.

But it drives on roads,

not on tracks.

So, I'm pretty sure that makes it

just a bus.

I mean, yes it will be guided with sensors

along what Xinhua calls a

“virtual track.”

But it's still driving on a road.

Isn't that a bus?

People's Daily reports it

“uses rubber wheels on a plastic core

instead of steel wheels.”

Yes, that sounds like a bus.

Second, “It's also equipped with the company's

copyrighted technology

to automatically guide the vehicles.”

Well apparently it still needs a driver

and a steering wheel.

So what's up with that?

Third, it's environmentally friendly...

because it's powered by electricity,

but two-thirds of China's electricity

is generated by coal-fired power plants.

So unless they can guarantee that this electricity

is coming from clean sources—

which they can't—

it's still going to generate a lot of pollution.

And fourth,

in the Xinhua video it says the individual sections

aren't physically connected,

but just seconds earlier

it showed them physically connected.

I don't know what's real anymore!

Now this isn't the first time China has

made headlines

for some revolutionary new public transit system.

You may remember seeing headlines

about this last year,

the Transit Elevated Bus.

And everyone was all like,

wow, the future of transit.

Now, there were the obvious questions left

unanswered,

such as,

will it block street signs?

What happens if you need to make a turn

while that thing is over you?

What if you're a truck?

But the more important question

everyone should have been asking was—

is this a scam?

Well, spoiler alert:

Yes, it was.

Apparently, the company behind it

raised hundreds of millions of dollars for it,

but only spent about 3 million.

Where did the rest of the money go?

Who knows?!

The Transit Elevated Bus prototype

now sits abandoned.

But the worst insult of all—

as Wired points out—

since it runs on tracks,

it's a train,

not a bus.

So how about China's new train-thing?

The coal-powered, environmentally friendly,

human-piloted, autonomous,

rubber-wheel-based train

that doesn't need a track?

Well, the track will be finished in 2018.

So we'll have to wait and see

if the train that's really a bus

does better than the bus that was really a train.

The good news is that,

according to People's Daily,

once the four-mile-long Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit

is completed,

it will link to the Zhuzhou's maglev train.

Which hasn't been built yet.

So what do you think?

Will this new vehicle be a blunder-bus?

Leave your comments below.

Thanks for watching this episode

of China Uncensored.

Once again, I'm your host, Chris Chappell.

See you next time.

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