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Autonomous driving shifts into high gear in China(Xinhua) 10:38, August 13, 2024
BEIJING, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Buckle up, touch a screen, and off you go -- with no hands on the wheel.
Taking a ride in one of the world's most cutting-edge robotaxis is becoming almost effortless in Beijing E-Town, a national-level economic-technological development area in the Chinese capital.
"Some might feel nervous when trying these fully self-driving taxis for the first time. But in my personal experience, after three or four minutes of chat in the seats, they would forget they were in a driverless car," said Zhang Ning, vice president of Chinese autonomous driving startup Pony.ai and head of its Beijing R&D center.
Outside the science fiction-like cab is an even more exciting bigger picture. Galvanized by growing technology prowess, accommodating regulation and investor enthusiasm, the autonomous driving industry is charging ahead toward large-scale commercial use with China revving up efforts to foster tech-intensive new growth engines.
ENTERING FAST LANE
Nearly 100 Pony.ai robotaxis are now available in a 160 square-km designated autonomous driving zone in Beijing E-Town, offering paid services for anyone, if they like, with just a few clicks on a mobile app.
The company, a rival to Alphabet's self-driving car unit Waymo, aims to increase the scale of its single-city robotaxi fleet to 10 times this number by either 2025 or 2026, Zhang told Xinhua in an interview.
"We've now come to the stage where it is possible to reduce costs on a larger scale of commercialization," he said. "As long as the robotaxi fleet reaches above 1,000 in one city, we will be able to break even in operation."
With around 250 robotaxis deployed in China's four first-tier cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, Pony.ai is teaming up with Japanese carmaker Toyota to roll out new-generation vehicles en masse.
These seventh-generation models will integrate autonomous driving technology during, rather than after, the car manufacturing process, making production more efficient.
This acceleration extends beyond the passenger transport scenario. In addition to its current around 200 fuel-driven robotrucks nationwide, Pony.ai is expected to roll out electric models to scale up autonomous driving in the field of cargo transport.
Describing autonomous driving as "a killer application" of artificial intelligence (AI), Zhang is upbeat about the prospects of this nascent industry, noting that it will catalyze the development of a whole AI industrial chain that incorporates such links as transport, energy and cloud computing.
Both the robotaxis and robotrucks produced by Pony.ai are based on L4 autonomy, which means the vehicles can drive themselves in most conditions without a human backup driver.
Autonomous driving is categorized from Level 0 to Level 5. The higher the level, the more advanced and intelligent the technology.
Listing AI as one of the strategic industries to be promoted through better policy and governance in the country's latest reform plan to advance modernization, China has been at the forefront of autonomous driving development.
The country first piloted robotaxis without safety operators in the cities of Wuhan and Chongqing in 2022. Last March, China approved the commercial operation of fully autonomous driving services in Beijing. By the end of 2023, over 30 Chinese cities had issued road test licenses for autonomous driving.
Global consulting firm McKinsey &Company has forecast that China will become the world's largest market for self-driving vehicles, with revenue from such vehicles and mobility services exceeding 500 billion U.S. dollars by 2030.
"Five or six years ago, most people would doubt if autonomous driving could take root in China. There are no such doubts now," Zhang said.
DRIVING FORCE
Technological progress is at the heart of the industry's advance, making driverless vehicles safer, cheaper, cleaner and more comfortable than traditional ones.
The safety level of autonomous driving is 10 times that of manned driving, according to Zhang, who noted that ensuring safety, efficiency and riding comfort will be a focus of his company's technology input as it speeds up commercialization.
Pony.ai had accumulated a total of 3.5 million km in global fully driverless testing as of May this year, compared with 200,000-300,000 km that a person could amass for a whole lifetime in general if not a long-distance commuter or a professional driver.
There is abundant demand for driverless vehicles in China, where 90 percent of traffic accidents are caused by human errors, according to official data. The riding experience in a clean cab without unwanted interaction with drivers is also a plus for many passengers. Self-driving trucks could make long-distance cargo transport less exhausting and reduce the demand for truck drivers, which is already faced with an insufficient supply.
