Chinese technology company LeEco on Wednesday made an inauspicious entry into the race to develop self-driving electric cars when its prototype car could not make it down the runway at a gala event here. China's Le Holdings Co Ltd, also known as LeEco, planned to unveil its self-driving car prototype as part of a splashy U.S. launch for an array of technology products and services, including phones, televisions and entertainment production. The choice of the San Francisco venue, in the backyard of luxury electric car maker Tesla and Alphabet Inc's Google self-driving car team, underscored the globalization of the race to develop connected, electric and eventually autonomous vehicles. "What we wanted was me in the car, and the autonomous car drives me out." The misfire was caused by a delay getting the LeSee car prototype from London - where it is being used in the film "Transformers 5" - to San Francisco, company officials said.

Source: dna October 20, 2016 05:37 UTC