Artificial intelligence behind the wheel - HUAWEI presents the first car driven by a smartphone

Huawei has extended its artificial intelligence (AI) interests into the realm of driverless vehicles, announcing that it has used an AI-powered smartphone to drive a car. Under its RoadReader project, Huawei said it has used its Mate 10 Pro device to conduct intelligent object recognition to distinguish between thousands of different objects including dogs, cats, balls, and bicycles and "learn to take the most appropriate course of action". "Unlike other driverless cars, which simply detect obstacles, Huawei has transformed a Porsche Panamera into a driverless vehicle that doesn't just see, but crucially understands its surroundings," the Chinese tech giant said. Automatic object-recognition AI capabilities were originally included in the Mate 10 Pro in order to improve photography, with Huawei saying this technology can be reused instead of relying on a third-party purpose-built chip. According to Huawei Western Europe CMO Andrew Garrihy, it then took the company only five weeks to achieve this feat with its technology.