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China's LeEco unveils self-driving car that shows up too late to drive

By Alexandria Sage SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - (This October 19 story was corrected to change headline and first paragraph to show the car was delivered too late to drive down the runway; correct name of car in paragraphs 5, 7 and 8 to LeSEE Pro instead of LeSEE; correct paragraphs 5 and 7 to add context about why car did not drive on runway; correct paragraph 8 to show the company unveiled its first prototype of the car in Beijing and the LeSEE prototype was the latest version) Chinese technology company LeEco on Wednesday made an entry into the race to develop self-driving electric cars but its prototype never drove down the runway because it showed up too late for a gala event here. China's Le Holdings Co Ltd, also known as LeEco <300104.SZ>, 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. Executives from Qualcomm and Lionsgate joined LeEco founder, Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting, to underscore the importance of the U.S. market to one of China's biggest technology companies. 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 globalisation of the race to develop connected, electric and eventually autonomous vehicles. But when Jia made his appearance running down a long runway in a cloud of dry ice, he had to tell the audience his LeSEE Pro prototype car would not make an appearance on the show's runway as planned. "It shouldn't be me running out here, we didn't have any other choice," Jia told the audience, speaking through a translator. "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 Pro prototype from London, where it is being used in the film "Transformers 5," to San Francisco, company officials said, and there was not enough time to get the car onto the stage. The LeSEE Pro, the latest version of the prototype, was made available for viewing after the show. The company unveiled its first prototype of the car, the LeSEE, in April in Beijing. LeEco executives said they envision the car as part of a shared ownership system, and said it could benefit from a strategic partnership with Los Angeles-based Faraday Future, an electric vehicle start-up also controlled by Jia. No details were given of that alliance. Faraday will unveil its first production vehicle in Las Vegas in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, Jia said. LeEco's focus on the interconnectivity of screens puts the Chinese company squarely in the path of Apple and other U.S. technology giants trying to bridge the gap between hardware like phones or cars and the software that connects them to each other. Besides LeEco, other Chinese companies have been investing heavily in Silicon Valley with electric vehicle start-ups, including Baidu Inc , Alibaba , Xiaomi[XTC.UL], and Tencent Holdings Ltd <0700.HK>. LeEco plans to launch its phone and television products on Nov. 2. (Reporting By Alexandria Sage)