Luo Xinlin, 22, experienced her first ride in a self-driving taxi in Changsha, the capital of China's Hunan Province. "I made an 【小题1】 (appoint) soon after setting the starting and ending points in the app." said Liu. "A safety supervisor contacted me and the taxi arrived in about 10 minutes."

"The taxi drove very smoothly by 【小题2】(it) and the safety supervisor and technician sitting in the front basically didn't have any manual control of it," said Liu after a 10-minute-long test ride. "The taxi passed through three or four intersections and it was a safe ride 【小题3】 any unexpected situations."

The self-driving taxi 【小题4】(operate) by Hunan Apollo Intelligent Transportation Co.. Ltd, 【小题5】 base is in Xiangjiang New Area in the city, is named Robotaxi. On April 21, the company announced that a group of 30 self-driving taxis had entered public use in the city and users can call one for a free ride.

"The in-car touch screen can display barriers and dynamic (动态的) predictions within the 360-degree field of vision and 【小题6】 (clear) present the conditions of passing vehicles, intersections and traffic lights," said Cheng Li, director of the test and vehicle operation department of the company. Cheng added users can learn information such as the vehicle's speed and 【小题7】(remain) distance through the screen in real time.

In September 2019, the company launched a trial service for a group of citizens, who had to first complete training and other procedures. The technical personnel started testing self-driving taxis in the second half of last year and they 【小题8】 (accumulate) a lot of test data since then.

China allowed local governments to arrange road tests for intelligent connected vehicles (ICVs), which cover different degrees of autonomous driving, in April 2018. 【小题9】 increasing number of cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing, have issued license 【小题10】(plate) for road tests of ICVs.

China’s C919 airliner, a potential 【小题1】 (compete) to Western-made Boeing and Airbus planes, made its first flight outside China on Sunday by staging a flyby at the Singapore Airshow.

China calls the C919, 【小题2】 (produce) by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), its first large homegrown passenger jet. The aircraft took to the skies for its first commercial flight last May. At present, it is carrying passengers only within Chinese mainland 【小题3】 flies with China Eastern Airlines.

China has more and more confidence to 【小题4】 (eventual) compete against Boeing and Airbus. The C919’s first overseas flight comes at the time 【小题5】 Boeing is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Last month, part of the fuselage (机身) of a 737 Max 9 Boeing plane 【小题6】 (fall) off during an Air Alaska flight in the United States.

The C919 would be the most focused aircraft at the Singapore Airshow. There is a lot of interest 【小题7】 (see) the actual aircraft, how it performs and how it is in flight. With an ability to fly between five to six hours, the C919 is perfect for regional travel. 【小题8】 had the potential to appeal to countries in Southeast Asia, Africa and Central Asia.

Currently, only a 【小题9】 (hand) of countries make their own planes because of extremely high barriers to entry in the industry. A high level of special technology, as well as huge amounts of time and resources, 【小题10】 (need).

Humans take a step closer to “flying cars”

In the 1880s, the first automobile was developed, and about two decades later, the Wright brothers in North Carolina invented the first successful airplane. “Today, the world is closer to 【小题1】 (combine) those two concepts.” said a Japanese tech company 【小题2】 completed a manned test flight of a “flying car”.

The company, SkyDrive, said in 【小题3】 news release on Friday that it 【小题4】 (complete) a flight test using “the world’s first manned testing machine,” its SD-03model, an electrical vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle. “The flight time was four minutes.” the company said.

The aircraft has one seat and operates with eight motors and two propellers (螺旋桨). It lifted about 10 【小题5】 (foot) into the air and was operated by a pilot, the company said. Tomohiro Fukuzawa, SkyDrive’s chief executive, said that five years ago there were various prototypes (原型) of flying cars, usually with fixed wings. SkyDrive’s product, he said, was one of the most smallest in size and was lighter 【小题6】 (compare) with other designs.

【小题7】 (safe) is one of two challenges preventing the technology from becoming 【小题8】 (wide) used, said Derya Aksaray, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering and mechanics at the University of Minnesota. “Now, safe autonomous technology for eVTOL aircraft 【小题9】 (develop).” Aksaray said, “The other challenge is design—the vehicles should be powerful enough to carry any necessary weight, yet quiet enough to fly 【小题10】 undetermined low altitudes.”