Artificial intelligence and autonomous driving Tesla's Cybercab mobilizes Chinese competition

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While Elon Musk made headlines by unveiling his Cybercab in Hollywood, Chinese competitors are quickly advancing in the autonomous vehicle space. Just 24 hours before Tesla's big reveal, Baidu, which operates one of the largest robotaxi fleets in China, announced a significant milestone: its expansion outside of China for the first time. This move marks an important step in Baidu's strategy to grow its presence in the global autonomous driving market, signaling that the race for robotaxi dominance is far from limited to U.S. companies.

With Baidu's announcement, the international race for the global market for robotaxis has begun – even before Tesla has received the licenses for the production of its Cybercab at home. Baidu, often referred to as the Google of China, not only operates the country's dominant internet search engine but also positions itself as a technology company for artificial intelligence and autonomous driving. Since 2013, the Chinese have been developing technology for autonomous driving and investing large sums in it.

Already without human safety drivers

More than 400 Apollo Go robotaxis from Baidu are already in operation in the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan. Over the past five years, the company has expanded into a total of ten major Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shenzhen. In these cities, as well as in Wuhan, some of the Apollo Go robotaxis are already allowed to operate completely without human safety drivers.

Baidu is now preparing to offer its robotaxi service in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Middle East, Nikkei Asia reported, citing a company spokesperson. The timing of these Baidu announcements, just hours before the Tesla show, was certainly no coincidence, but a deliberate self-promotion. Baidu has "started discussions with foreign automakers, ride-sharing platforms, and other tech companies to introduce Apollo Go through local partnerships outside China," writes Nikkei Asia. "The race for the commercialization of autonomous vehicles has begun," the Japanese business newspaper declared.

China ahead in real-world traffic tests

Technologically, particularly in the early research and development of autonomous driving solutions, the USA is a global leader. The prototype of Tesla's Cybercab presented this week has also garnered many admiring comments in the specialized press and among auto experts in China. However, when it comes to pilot projects and real-world testing on public roads, the Chinese are currently ahead. Baidu plans to expand its own fleet in Wuhan to 1,000 Apollo Go autonomous taxis by the end of this year.

The local government there is helping the auto industry based there to transform and is now striving to establish itself as a hotspot for the new technology of autonomous driving, calling itself "the largest service region for the operation of autonomous driving services in the world." The Beijing central government also promotes the new technology. According to statistics from the national police authority, it has already issued more than 16,000 test licenses for robotaxis, more than any other country in the world.

Collect data daily

On 32,000 kilometers of roads in the People's Republic of China, autonomously driving taxis from various providers are already operating. They collect new data daily, which helps optimize the algorithms—making the ride services safer and increasingly attractive for commercial use. Chinese competitors to Baidu in this field, notably the Toyota-backed Pony.ai and the startup WeRide, are also testing extensively in China on a daily basis. In the USA, leading Tesla competitors like Waymo and Cruise have also started pilot projects in major cities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, but the volume of passenger transportation is still much smaller than in China.

Expansion outside of China

In the second quarter of this year alone, Baidu's Apollo Go was able to transport 899,000 passengers with its robotaxis. The total number of all test and commercially provided rides in Baidu's autonomous taxis amounted to more than seven million by the end of July—even though most still had a human supervisor in the passenger seat. Not only Baidu, but also Pony.ai and WeRide are already expanding outside of China. Pony.ai signed a letter of intent with the taxi company ComfortDelGro in Singapore in July. The delivery of the first vehicles is expected to occur soon. Negotiations between Pony.ai and local partners are also underway in South Korea, Luxembourg, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. In September, WeRide entered a strategic partnership with Uber. Together, they plan to launch autonomously driving robotaxis in international markets, starting in the United Arab Emirates.

Location advantages

Both in terms of commercialization and export of their technologies, Chinese Tesla competitors currently have the upper hand. While Elon Musk stages skilled press events but still has to struggle for his regulatory approvals, companies like Baidu, Pony.ai, and WeRide are accumulating new kilometers and data daily in China. "Although the USA has an advantage as a first mover in terms of R&D, the unique advantages of the Chinese market offer domestic companies like Apollo Go many opportunities to catch up," according to an analysis by the Chinese e-commerce portal Dianshang Bao. These special locational advantages in China include, in addition to the already mentioned government support and the technology enthusiasm of many Chinese, primarily the size of the domestic market, which quickly drives down the prices for robotaxis.

The sixth generation of Baidu's robotaxis, in use since May of this year, now costs less than 200,000 Yuan, which is less than 26,000 Euros. That's 60 percent less than the previous generation. Elon Musk has announced that he wants to offer his prototype Cybercab, once he has received the production permits, for less than 30,000 US dollars. How he plans to achieve this, he has not yet revealed. But the Chinese are already showing how it's done. (se)

*Henrik Bork, long-time China correspondent for German 'Süddeutsche Zeitung' and 'Frankfurter Rundschau', is Managing Director at Asia Waypoint, a consulting agency specializing in China based in Beijing.

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