“For your safety, please fasten your seat belt,” said the car before steering itself away from the curb and gliding forward.
Chinese internet group Baidu operates about 400 driverless taxis like this one in the city of Wuhan, covering an area about 50% bigger than Tokyo. With government subsidies, fares are about RMB 1.5–2 (USD 0.21–28) per kilometer, less than half as much as for a cab with a driver.
The service is one sign of Beijing’s strong state support for innovation in the auto industry, where Chinese companies now rival Tesla in electric vehicles.
Baidu’s self-driving business “has achieved important breakthroughs,” said CEO Robin Li in an earnings call on August 22.
The company is moving to put 1,000 of the vehicles on the road with an eye to achieving profitability. Plans call for expanding the service to 100 cities in 2030.
“I use them a lot because they’re cost-effective,” said a Wuhan man.
But taxi and ride-hailing drivers in the city have protested against the rollout.
“Self-driving cabs are taking our jobs,” one driver said. “They are technologically immature, and many of them stop in the middle of the road, causing traffic jams. The government should freeze its support.”
Videos of self-driving cars seemingly causing accidents and other problems circulate on Chinese social media. New reports say more than 10 million cab and ride-hailing drivers in China are at risk of losing their jobs because of autonomous vehicles.
Yet, the government’s support for new technologies is unwavering in the world’s largest automotive market.
In July, government officials held a private meeting top auto industry leaders in Shanghai, people familiar with the matter said.
Miao Wei, a former minister of industry and information technology who is influential in automobile policy, declared that China had become the world leader in EVs and that its next target was the intersection of automotives and IT, such as autonomous driving, those people said.
China regards Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system as one benchmark for measuring the country’s progress. Chinese observers say FSD has logged over 1.6 billion kilometers of trips, well above Baidu’s over 100 million kilometers, and that the latest version is at least five years ahead of Chinese self-driving technology.
Chinese government officials and auto industry players see an opportunity to learn from Tesla in China. They think Tesla needs data from vehicles sold in the country to improve FSD.
In terms of EVs, China is home to a Tesla factory in Shanghai as well as a supply chain that has helped Chinese automakers rival the US company at home and abroad.
“China is aiming to replicate the win-win relationship it created with Tesla and EVs in the area of self-driving,” an automotive industry analyst said.
Baidu is not China’s only player in autonomous cars. Other vehicles on Chinese roads are equipped with Huawei Technologies’ self-driving system. Both companies enjoy a vast domestic market that serves as a proving ground for new technologies, with industry, government, and academia working together to promote innovation.