Wuhan
Last updated
Last updated
available to the public, both with robotaxis & autonomous buses ()
available to the public
available to the public
"Dongfeng Motor Corporation plans to roll out more than 200 driverless taxis in Wuhan in the following two to three years." - Feb 2021.
"According to Dongfeng Sharing, it will launch over 100 Sharing BUS and Sharing TAXI autonomous vehicles for the project, realizing a totaled operation area of more than 200km in Wuhan and Xiongan New Area." - January 2023
Service area (map & timings) in this video
Each fare starts at 16 yuan, followed by a free 1 km and then 2.8 yuan per km. Passengers can now enjoy a 90% discount.
Baidu, the tech company sometimes called the “Google of China” announced its new 6th generation robotaxi, with plans to deploy 1,000 of them in Wuhan this year. They also forecast they will be profitable in 2025 (on a “unit economy” basis, a type of gross margin.) The new vehicle, which costs them 200,000 RMB to build (around $27,500 USD) is half the cost of their previous generation vehicle.
While the new vehicles retain a wheel and pedals, they will operate without safety drivers in Wuhan, where 70% of Baidu Apollo Go’s robotaxi operations currently are without a safety driver, according to the company.
"Baidu last year (2023) set up a driverless taxi service in Wuhan and a few other places called "Carrot Run" (萝卜快跑), and the experiment is proving super popular with already 6 million rides completed with a fleet of just 1,000 cars. The main reason is cost: without a driver and able to operate 24/7, it costs only 1/3rd of the price of a taxi or Uber. The cost paid by users is between RMB0.5 to RMB1.0 per km ($0.07 to $0.14) which is INSANELY cheap. With such a service, a drive between Boston and NYC (348 km) would set you back between $24 and $48, in your own private taxi! Another added benefit is that they've set up the cars so that customers can sing karaoke or watch movies in the back (something you can't exactly do in a typical Uber). And safety-wise it's also proving much better than human drivers with no major accident in 100 million kilometers travelled. So obviously a better experience from a consumer standpoint and it'll doubtlessly become the norm in a few years. Which of course raises questions with regards to jobs: millions if not tens of millions of people in China live off driving (taxis, delivery, etc.) so we're looking at quite a disruption if all those jobs get replaced by AI. And at the pace at which China moves, it's going to happen sooner rather than later"
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