‘Autonomous vehicles to be produced in 2 years’

Mass production of vehicles without a driving wheel will start in about two years and autonomous driving is going to be cheaper than the present cost of a car, Softbank Group CEO Masayoshi Son said on Friday.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum's online Davos Agenda Summit, he said the COVID-19 situation is a tragedy, but technology is evolving faster due to the pandemic.

Speaking to BlackRock chief Larry Fink during a session on the last day of the week-long summit, attended by top government and business leaders from across the world, Son said he is optimistic in the longrun about recovery from the pandemic, adding that vaccines have come as a sign of hope.

But it will take some time to get people vaccinated, causing worry in the short run, he added.

Technological advances are changing people lives and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated those developments, Son said.

"Tragedy is tragedy. It's a disastrous situation. But technology-wise, it's evolving quicker," he said.

For example, video conferencing has taken off and so has education-technology and autonomous driving, both spurred by innovations in artificial intelligence (AI), the Softbank Group Corp Chairman and CEO said.

"New tech unicorns represent USD 510 billion -- half of that from US, and twothirds of the remaining half from China, with only one company from Japan," he said.