The past twenty years has seen China expand with unparalleled growth in almost every area, including the automotive market, which is now the largest in the world. More importantly though, Chinese consumers have proven remarkably open-minded about new technology, which could spur the adoption of autonomous cars, according to a report in Ward’s Auto.

Automakers are rushing out semi-autonomous driving features in the North American and European markets first, and within the next decade we should see fully-autonomous cars in dealerships. But one of the main problems facing any new technology is getting people to buy it, and mature Western consumers tend to approach autonomous vehicles with a lot of skepticism. In China though, consumers are much more open to an Internet-integrated “digital lifestyle” that includes constantly-connected cars and smartphones.

Of course there are other factors at play here, including absolutely epic multi-day traffic jams and the enormous cost of ownership of private vehicles in dense urban areas. Studies find that up to 100,000 Chinese citizens die every year from car accidents, which is three times the number of deaths here in the U.S. Autonomous cars offer a way to reduce that number down to almost nothing, which has peaked the interest of the Chinese government as well. BMW recently began a new project to test autonomous vehicles in China, and Tesla’s new autopilot features should prove popular with buyers as well.