China is Close to Entering RoboTaxis Market Space

[tjscott0]

Silicon Valley led the quest for driverless cars. But Chinese robotaxis are...

Chinese rivals are quickly catching up in both scale and technological capability. Chinese tech giant Baidui recently announced its Apollo Go robotaxi service has completed more than 11 million rides, surpassing Waymo’s reported 10 million. The company is now testing in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates, with reported plans to expand to Switzerland and Turkey.

Top Chinese contenders WeRide and Pony.ai — both listed in the U.S. and backed by investors including Nvidia and Toyota — are also rapidly expanding through partnerships with Uber in Europe and the Middle East. Both companies have secured permits to test in the U.S.

[buynholdisdead]

@tjscott0

Top Chinese contenders WeRide and Pony.ai — both listed in the U.S. and backed by investors including Nvidia and Toyota — are also rapidly expanding through partnerships with Uber in Europe and the Middle East. Both companies have secured permits to test in the U.S.

I wonder if they will try to kill this in the United States with a claim that it could be dangerous to allow Americans to ride in Chinese AFSD taxis?

[tjscott0]

@buynholdisdead

I wonder if they will try to kill this in the United States with a claim that it could be dangerous to allow Americans to ride in Chinese AFSD taxis?

Also a danger to allow potentially superior China service or products to compete with domestic brands.

[syke6]

@buynholdisdead

I wonder if they will try to kill this in the United States with a claim that it could be dangerous to allow Americans to ride in Chinese AFSD taxis?

Probably. But I wouldn’t count out top western companies like Waymo and Mobileye just yet. Total miles isn’t really the metric of concern. They are miles per intervention, miles per accident and miles per serious accident. As far as I know, we don’t have those stats to compare between companies.