Autonomous driving Robotaxis with "teething problems" annoy China's drivers

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Wuxi InfiMotion Technology Co., Ltd.

Complaints about driverless taxis are on the rise in China. However, that's not likely to stop their progress. Learn about what these robot taxis are already good at and what still needs to be improved.

These slow robot taxis! In Wuhan and other Chinese cities, complaints are increasing about the driverless taxis from "Baidu Apollo Go". While most Chinese people are well-disposed towards the new technology, autonomous driving in real traffic appears to still have a number of "teething troubles".

"Driving too slowly!", "Suddenly braking abruptly!" or "Wobbling around the corner at snail's pace!" are some of the comments on the country's social media, since Apollo Go introduced the sixth generation of its robot taxis in the city of Wuhan, with millions of inhabitants. Complaints are also reportedly coming from more than ten other cities where the company's driverless taxi fleet now operates, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Dalian, reports the Chinese automotive newspaper Zhongguo Qiche Bao. However, it seems that drivers in Wuhan are particularly dissatisfied.

Criticism of excessive caution

A large part of the criticism revolves around the "excessive caution" of the robot taxis in traffic as perceived by other road users. They generally drive too slowly everywhere, never exceeding 60 km/h on valley bridges, thus causing sluggish traffic and traffic jams where this was not the case before. The robot taxis apparently turn so slowly that some drivers behind them are almost raging with impatience. They are "too polite" and always give way to pedestrians, it is said. And they often brake so hard that they themselves become a safety risk for following vehicles, are some of the accusations against the robot taxis.

Fairly, in favor of the developers of robot taxis, it must be mentioned at this point that the drivers in Wuhan are known nationwide for their tempestuous driving style. The bustling pedestrians with often questionable traffic behavior in the center of the 13-million-city presents a special challenge for the programming of algorithms for autonomous driving. Baidu Apollo had only introduced the latest generation of its Apollo-Go fleet in May of this year. In addition to new hardware components, they are equipped on the software side with a new "Large Model", the ADFM or "Autonomous Driving Foundation Model".

More than ten times superior to human drivers

The company claims that the new system is "more than ten times superior to human drivers in terms of driving safety" and can also cover "complex urban scenarios". The accumulating complaints from drivers in China have sparked a new debate about autonomous driving, its safety, and the feasibility of rapid commercialization at today's level of technology.

"These issues not only interfere with the normal traffic participation of citizens, but also trigger extensive discussions about the safety and practicability of autonomous vehicles," writes the Chinese car newspaper. How the debate will develop further is not yet clear—however, for the moment, supporters of autonomous driving in China clearly seem to be in the majority. A survey by the Capgemini Research Institute shows that consumers in China have a more positive attitude towards driverless driving than consumers in most other countries in the world. According to press reports, more than half of the Chinese would like to give up their own driving as soon as they can switch to autonomous cars. Drivers in western countries have a "much more conservative attitude" towards the new technology in comparison, according to articles about the Capgemini survey.

Road tests for rapid development

China's government is promoting the development of autonomous driving by quickly approving road tests for individual, private vehicles. The autonomous taxi fleets all over the country also provide valuable test kilometers and experiences for car manufacturers—the current complaints in Wuhan and elsewhere can certainly be taken into account.

In recent years, the service that allows you to easily call a driverless taxi from your smartphone app and safely ride to your desired location has quietly spread to more and more cities in the People's Republic. In Wuhan, you can conveniently travel from the airport to a hotel in the city center without having to communicate with a taxi driver and worry about the amount of tip.

Reports of accidents removed

So far, there have been no significant accidents in millions of autonomous kilometers driven. However, foreign critics complain that sometimes reports of accidents involving autonomous vehicles in China are removed from the internet by censorship—apparently because the government wants to promote the development of the industry.

In Wuhan, 70 percent of all Apollo Go robotaxis are completely without a safety driver. Only in a minority of the robotaxis there is a human "supervisor" who can intervene in case of emergency. However, for every three robotaxis without human crew, a supervisor must monitor the rides from a safety center screen.

Experts agree that safety is a major argument for the introduction of autonomous driving. Even though the robot taxis are not perfect and they apparently overly cautious according to the opinion of other drivers - so far, they cause significantly fewer accidents in practice than Chinese taxi drivers. Also, autonomous vehicles reduce operating costs for transport operators. The recently unveiled 6th generation Baidu Apollo robot taxi costs only 200,000 yuan (about 25,800 euros) to manufacture—which is only about half the cost of the previous generation.

Rapid amortization of acquisition costs

However, the most significant saving for taxi or mobility companies is in wage costs. There is no need to pay and insure drivers anymore, and no income tax is due. Now that the prices for robot taxis are dropping so drastically, the purchase of an autonomous taxi will pay off very quickly. This allows cheaper fares to be offered to end customers. Baidu's and its technology partners' ability to build a "nice electric car complete with computer and sensor suite for less than 28,000 dollars is a great step and will gradually be replicated worldwide," comments US magazine Forbes.

To produce its robot taxis, Apollo Go is working with several established car manufacturers, including Geely, Great Wall, and GAC. There have also been projects with Toyota and Ford. Together with Geely, Baidu has also founded an electric car brand called Jidu, which specializes in automated driving cars.

Transport needs of the aging population

Baidu, sometimes referred to as "China's Google," and its partners in the auto industry are hoping for a lucrative business once autonomous driving spreads globally from China. They argue that the world's rapidly aging population will not be able to meet its future transportation needs without such solutions. In the emerging "Smart Cities", they say that managing traffic flows with autonomous cars is easier than with traditional vehicles. Moreover, they argue that advances in connected and intelligent driving are rapidly increasing their safety year by year.

The most important argument for investors who are pumping a lot of money into the development of autonomous cars in China is still the cost advantages for mobility and logistics providers. The use of robot taxis not only saves driver's wages, but also significantly simplifies and thus makes cheaper the work of the taxi dispatch centers. According to Apollo Go, the activation, the dispatch to the customer, the return to the parking spot and the cleaning of the vehicles after the ride are all carried out completely automatically, so without any human interaction.

Apollo Go aims to reach break-even point in Wuhan this year, and the company wants to be profitable by 2025. This would make Apollo Go the world's first commercially successful mobility provider to rely on autonomous driving. In the opinion of many analysts in China, the current complaints from some road users who think the taxis are driving too slowly will not be able to stop this.