More than 70% of Baidu Apollo Go robotaxi rides in Wuhan were driverless in April, and the company said in May it expects 100% of rides to be fully autonomous in the coming quarter.
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BEIJING – China’s year-long effort to develop robotaxis began to gain traction with consumers – but also rattling taxi drivers worried about losing their jobs as a result of increasing competition.
As GM‘s Cruise and AlphabetWaymo has launched driverless taxis in San Francisco and Phoenix, Arizona, local Chinese governments from Beijing to Guangzhou are allowing domestic players to operate robotaxi rides for the public.
This week, China’s rising robotaxis started trending on social media.
As of Thursday morning, a video about the autonomous driving taxi experience was the 12th most popular topic on Douyin, China’s version of Bytedance’s TikTok.
BaiduThe Apollo Go robotaxi unit became one of the 10 most popular hashtags on social media platform Weibo on Wednesday after reports of rapid user use in the city of Wuhan.
The company began operating driverless vehicles in certain districts of Wuhan, 24/7 in March.
Wuhan is the largest operational area for Baidu’s Apollo Go, one of the largest robotaxi operators in China. The company has more than 500 robotaxis operating in the city and plans to increase to 1,000 by the end of the year.
When contacted by CNBC, Baidu had no official update to share.
Increased attention has come to robotaxis as China’s major cities ramp up support, while smaller cities have restricted ride-hailing applications in recent months.
The top social media post on Wednesday quickly came from Wuhan’s robotaxi test, predicting an upcoming national launch and spawning hashtags like: “Are driverless cars stealing people’s rice bowls.” That’s according to CNBC’s translation from Chinese.
Also making the rounds on social media was an appeal at the end of June by taxi companies in Wuhan seeking tax cuts and more restrictions on the Apollo Go robotaxis as well as the number of cars it launches.
CNBC was unable to independently verify the document, which said the taxi company had to stop operating four of its 159-car fleets starting in April due to declining revenue.
Overall wage growth in China has slowed from around 10% annual growth before the pandemic, to 4% in recent years, according to a Goldman Sachs analysis published last month. The pace rose to 5.6% year-on-year growth in the first quarter, the report said.
There are more and more drivers
A surge of new companies and ride-hailing drivers has also led some local governments to restrict the industry.
The city of Guyuan in the Ningxia autonomous region announced that starting May 12, it is suspending its online transportation business.
“Our city’s taxi market is saturated,” said the announcement in Chinese, translated by CNBC.
Separately, the southwestern city of Guiyang has suspended new ride-hailing licenses for half a year through June. The announcement said that the authorities may remove some businesses and cars that do not comply.
China had more than 7 million registered ride-hailing drivers at the end of May, according to the Ministry of Transportation.
That’s about twice as many as the 3.51 million drivers reported for July 2021, and 570,000 more drivers than the ministry reported in November.
By comparison, the U.S. will have nearly 400,000 taxi and taxi drivers, shuttle drivers and chauffeurs in 2022, according to the most recent figures available from the 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 Transportation.
China is moving forward with robotaxi support
Several Chinese ministries in January launched plans to promote cloud-related cars, including tests of at least 200 low-speed unmanned vehicles in each pilot area. Last week, the same authorities released a list of 20 initial pilot cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Wuhan.
These cities have allowed robotaxi operators to test their cars in suburban areas.
The city of Beijing in November 2021 will start allowing Apollo Go and Baidu’s Pony.ai startup to collect fares from the public to ride safety drivers in robotaxis.
Last year, the city of Beijing allowed operators to remove all staff from some vehicles. The city last month released a draft law that puts responsibility for robotaxi traffic violations on the owner and manager of the car if there is no driver.
Public-facing rides are now subsidized, and the number of vehicles on the road is still lower than traditional taxis.
The Apollo Go app showed on Thursday that a 45-minute robotaxi ride from Daxing airport to Beijing’s southern suburbs will be fully subsidized — the whole thing costs 193.84 yuan ($26.66). The app also shows a 16-minute robotaxi ride in the suburbs of Beijing will cost 10.36 yuan, about half of the 20 yuan fare listed by the ride-hailing app, which can call taxis.
Baidu
Baidu CEO Robin Li told investors in May that more than 70% of Apollo Go robotaxi rides in April were driverless, with no human staff inside. He predicts that the stock will reach 100% in the coming quarter – and let Apollo Go break even in Wuhan first.
The city is the capital of Hubei province, which it said in an article on June 1 is trying to become the world’s first autonomous driving city.
“I just got my driver’s license … and there’s already a driverless car? What’s the point of me taking the test?” according to Chinese comments on the article, translated by CNBC.
“In the short term, there is no way autonomous driving can replace drivers,” the Hubei government account said in its response.
