Not many technologies have had such a roller-coaster ride previously yr as robotaxis. In only a couple of months they went from San Francisco’s latest darling to a national scandal after Cruise, certainly one of the leading firms within the business, was involved in a serious accident.
This morning, I published a story taking a look at where the industry is getting in the brand new yr. Aside from rebuilding the general public trust that was lost last yr, robotaxi firms are also struggling to search out a practical business model. It’s not a moonshot idea anymore, nevertheless it’s also not quite a feasible business yet.
The piece mostly focuses on the situation within the US, which is experiencing essentially the most uncertainty due to that Cruise incident. But obviously, I’ve also been paying close attention to Chinese firms on this field. And this text can be a crash course to bring you up up to now on how the Chinese peers of Cruise and Waymo are doing now.
The US and China have been on similar timelines in the case of autonomous-driving technology.
It’s hard to make a direct comparison because these firms don’t often operate in the identical market. Cruise and Waymo don’t exist in China in any respect; while some Chinese firms have arrange research labs within the US and have been testing their vehicles here, they haven’t any plan to compete within the US domestic market.
But there are such a lot of developments happening in parallel. Within the last two years, firms in each countries obtained permits to remove safety operators from the cars, charge passengers for the ride, expand their services to airports, and extend their operating hours to 24/7.
What it means is that robotaxis are nearly as accessible in China immediately as they’re within the US. For those who are determined to try them out, there are several Chinese cities where you could find these self-driving vehicles on the streets—although you continue to can’t really use them for an everyday commute.
And now, American and Chinese robotaxi firms are each under pressure to start out being profitable. Considering the advanced hardware and software in a robotaxi and the human intervention still needed to operate and maintain them, robotaxi rides have much higher costs than taxi rides today, which makes the business hard to scale up.
I first heard about this in the summertime of 2023, after I noticed that Chinese carmakers had suddenly began aggressively rolling out autopilot functions (just like Tesla’s FSD). One in every of the explanations behind that push turned out to be that Chinese autonomous-driving firms desired to generate quicker revenues. As an alternative of waiting for fully autonomous vehicles, like robotaxis, to generate profits by themselves, they’d moderately package the technologies into driver-assistance systems and sell to the market now.
One difference between the robotaxi rollouts within the two countries has to do with regulation. Chinese regulators are known for his or her hands-on approach and the tendency to rein in latest technologies early. Robotaxis have been no exception.
In December 2023, China’s first regulation on business operation of autonomous vehicles went into effect. It sets some ground rules for various sorts of vehicles: roboshuttles or robotrucks still have to have in-car safety operators, while robotaxis can use distant operators. The ratio of robotaxis to distant operators cannot exceed 3:1, and operators have to pass certain skill tests. There are also rules specifying what data the businesses have to report when accidents occur.
Like several first stab at regulations, the document still seems relatively abstract at this point. However it does put China one step ahead of the US, where national laws on robotaxis could take for much longer to return, and it’s the person states taking all of the steps for now. It would be interesting to see how the several regulatory approaches will affect the industry in the long run.
On that note, we’d have the opportunity to see American and Chinese robotaxi firms compete directly soon—not on their home turfs, but within the Middle East. In Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, robotaxis made by the Chinese company WeRide have been carrying out free test rides. Only a two-hour drive away in Dubai, robotaxis made by Cruise are also being tested, despite the fact that the identical vehicles have been pulled off the roads within the US.
Possibly we are going to soon have the opportunity to ride a Chinese robotaxi and an American robotaxi on the identical day. For those who get the possibility to try this, definitely let me understand how it goes!
Meet up with China
1. China’s population declined for the second yr in a row, in line with latest data released by the federal government. (NBC News)
2. AI scientists and policy experts from the US and China held secretive talks in Geneva last yr to align their views on AI safety. (Financial Times $)
3. A couple of million Chinese people have emigrated since 2019, transforming the communities in neighboring Asian countries. (Bloomberg $)
4. China’s web regulator is investigating what data Shein could share overseas because the fast-fashion company prepares to go public within the US. (Wall Street Journal $)
5. CJPL, a Chinese research lab attempting to find dark matter, just opened its second phase and have become the world’s deepest and largest underground lab. (Nature)
6. The Chinese government vows to rein within the overproduction of electrical cars and the “disorderly competition behaviors” amongst domestic EV firms. (Financial Times $)
Lost in translation
Once determined to cut back its reliance on coal, China is ramping up coal production and consumption again. In keeping with the Chinese publication , China produced 4.66 billion tons of coal in 2023, reaching a historical peak; China also imported 0.47 billion tons of coal in 2023, a 61.8% increase from the yr before and one other historical high.
In 2020, the Chinese government was taking measures to phase out coal power plants. However the war between Russia and Ukraine pushed up the worldwide energy price and left China uncertain whether shifting to renewable energy could disrupt its economic stability. In consequence, more coal power plants have entered construction previously few years in China, causing a rebound in coal consumption and production.
Yet one more thing
Today in gadgets no person asked for: A Chinese party-owned outlet designed an influence bank–slash–speaker. Called the “‘Xi Jinping’s “The Governance of China” Volumes 1-4’ Ideology Power Bank,” the speaker reads you 72 political essays explaining the Chinese president’s ideology while it also charges your phone. What, you need to buy one? Sorry, it’s exclusively given to party cadres and government employees.