As of April, more than 70% of Baidu’s Apollo Go self-driving taxis in Wuhan were fully driverless, and the company said in May that it expected 100% of its taxis to be fully autonomous in the coming quarters.
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BEIJING – China’s years-long effort to develop robotaxis is starting to gain traction with consumers, but it has also unsettled taxi drivers who fear increased competition will put them out of work.
like General Motorsof cruise ships and letterWaymo has launched driverless taxis in San Francisco and Phoenix, Arizona, and local governments in China from Beijing to Guangzhou are allowing domestic companies to operate robotaxis for the public.
Robo-taxis are becoming increasingly popular in China this week, starting to trend on social media.
As of Thursday morning, the video of the fully self-driving taxi experience ranked 12th on Douyin, the bit-beating Chinese version of TikTok.
BaiduApollo Go, Wuhan’s robotaxi unit, became one of the top 10 trending hashtags on social media platform Weibo on Wednesday, amid reports that the city’s robotaxi unit was one of the most popular.
The company began operating fully driverless vehicles in certain areas of Wuhan, March 24/7.
Wuhan is the largest operating area for Baidu Apollo Go, one of the largest robotaxi operators in China. The company has more than 500 robotaxis in the city and plans to increase their number to 1,000 by the end of this year.
Baidu did not disclose any official updates when contacted by CNBC.
Concern about robotaxis has grown as China’s major cities step up support and smaller cities restrict ride-hailing apps in the past few months.
Popular social media posts on Wednesday quickly extrapolated from robo-taxi tests in Wuhan to predictions of an imminent nationwide rollout, spawning hashtags such as “Are driverless ride-hailing vehicles stealing people’s jobs?” That’s according to CNBC’s Chinese translation.
In late June, a taxi company in Wuhan called for tax cuts and more restrictions on the number of Apollo Go robotaxis and ride-hailing services.
The document, which CNBC could not independently verify, claims the taxi company has had to stop operating four of its 159 vehicles since April due to declining revenue.
Analysis released by Goldman Sachs last month showed that overall wage growth in China has slowed from about 10% annual growth before the outbreak to 4% in recent years. The report said the annual growth rate increased to 5.6% in the first quarter.
The number of ride-hailing drivers is on the rise
Meanwhile, a surge in new companies and ride-hailing drivers has prompted some local governments to impose restrictions on the industry.
Guyuan City, Ningxia Autonomous Region announced that as of May 12, Suspend ride-hailing service.
“The taxi market in our city is saturated,” the Chinese announcement, translated by CNBC, said.
In addition, the southwestern city of Guiyang Suspension of new ride hailing licenses Half a year to June. The announcement stated that relevant departments have canceled some non-compliant ride-hailing companies and cars.
China has more than 7 million registered ride-hailing drivers As of the end of May, according to the Ministry of Transportation.
That’s about it twice as much as 3.51 million Drivers reporting in July 2021, and 570,000 new drivers added That’s more than the department reported through November.
By comparison, the United States will have nearly 400,000 taxi and ride-hailing drivers, shuttle drivers and full-time drivers by 2022, according to the latest data. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The number of ride-hailing companies in China has also increased, from 241 in 2021 to 351 in May this year, according to the Ministry of Transport.
China advances robotaxi support
Chinese ministries in January released a plan to promote cloud-connected cars, which at least includes testing 200 low-speed unmanned vehicles in each trial area. Last week, the same authorities published a list 20 first batch of pilot citiesIncluding Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Wuhan.
These cities already allow robo-taxi operators test car exist suburbs.
November 2021 Beijing Baidu’s Apollo Go and startup Pony.ai will be allowed to charge the public for rides with safety drivers in robotaxis.
Last year, Beijing allowed operators to Remove all employees from a few Vehicles. The city released draft rules last month stating Robotaxi Traffic Violation Liability If there is no driver, the owner and manager are responsible.
Ride-hailing services for the public are currently subsidized, and the number of vehicles on the road is still far lower than traditional taxis.
The Apollo Go app showed on Thursday that a 45-minute robo-taxi trip from Daxing Airport to Beijing’s southern suburbs will be fully subsidized – with the entire cost of 193.84 yuan ($26.66) waived. The app also shows that a 16-minute ride in a robotaxi on the outskirts of Beijing costs 10.36 yuan, about half the 20 yuan fare listed on ride-hailing apps that can hail taxis.
Baidu
Baidu CEO Robin Li told investors in May that more than 70% of Apollo Go robotaxi trips in April were completely driverless, with no staff in the car. He expects the share to reach 100% in the next few quarters and for Apollo Go to break even in Wuhan first.
The city is the capital of Hubei Province, which the province announced in a June 1 article that it will strive to become the capital city of Hubei Province. The world’s first self-driving city.
“I just got my driver’s license…and now there are self-driving cars? What’s the point of me taking the test?” according to a Chinese comment on the article translated by CNBC.
The Hubei government account said in a reply, “In the short term, it is impossible for autonomous driving to replace drivers.”
