Baidu’s Apollo Go robotaxi, on the right, rides next to Pony.ai’s version in Beijing’s Yizhuang suburb. The two vehicles are pictured here in November 2021, shortly after Beijing allowed the companies to charge tariffs.
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BEIJING – The Chinese capital is taking rapid steps to grow robotaxi companies.
From Tuesday, the Yizhuang city district in Beijing’s suburbs will officially hire local robotaxi operators – mainly Baidu and startup Pony.ai – charges fees for fully autonomous taxis, without human staff.
That completely eliminates the cost of a driver. Previously, commercial, public-facing robotaxis had to have an employee sit inside with the passenger. The Yizhuang district is about a half-hour drive from central Beijing and is home to companies such as JD.com.
More approvals are coming for robotaxi operations in the city, said Ning Zhang, vice president at Pony.ai and head of its Beijing research and development center.
“We are very confident… maybe only in three years’ time will our fully self-driving vehicles drive across the entire city of Beijing,” he said in an interview with CNBC on Monday.
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Citing discussions with Beijing’s mayor, Zhang said the city plans to expand robotaxi testing areas to Daxing International Airport and around one train station by the end of the year.
In July, Beijing Mayor Yin Yong met separately with Pony.ai, Alibaba and Xiaomi to encourage their work in connected cars, artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technology. This is according to a state media report that Pony.ai republished on its official WeChat account.
The city also previously announced general plans to expand the robotaxis testing area.
Less than two years ago, in November 2021, the city of Beijing allowed robotaxi operators to collect fares for public rides, a first step toward eliminating driver fees. People can book heavily subsidized robotaxi rides from Baidu and Pony.ai in Yizhuang district through the companies’ apps.
Of the more than 200 robotaxis Pony.ai operates in the region, only a dozen are currently fully unmanned, Zhang said. He noted that the city of Beijing is considering seven factors in a phased process to allow public robotaxi operations, including which seat the safety driver sits in and whether the car is used for testing or commercial purposes.
After initial tests, Zhang expects that fully unmanned robotaxis could operate around Daxing Airport next year.
The city of Beijing did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment. Baidu did not share how many fully unmanned robotaxis it would be able to operate as of the announcement.
Robotaxi safety
In the US, San Francisco is one of the leading cities testing robotaxis. In August, California state authorities said Alphabet’s Waymo and General Motors’ Cruise could offer paid robotaxi services in San Francisco, transporting passengers across the city 24 hours a day.
Shortly afterwards, the California Department of Motor Vehicles said Cruise would have to reduce its robotaxi fleet in San Francisco by 50%. The company’s self-driving vehicles have recently been involved in several accidents.
Pony.ai’s Zhang claimed that the startup has never had fully unmanned driverless robotaxi accidents in China and that the company has the best safety record in the world.
When asked about the safety performance of other robotaxi operators in China, Zhang said he could not share details but said competitors have had accidents.
When asked about its robotaxi safety record in July, a Baidu representative referred CNBC to a report that didn’t provide much clarity on the matter.
Beijing Daxing International Airport is located south of central Beijing, indicated by the yellow star, with the Yizhuang area near the “G2” marker closest to the center.
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Building a safety track record that supports further government authorization for robotaxi operations relies heavily on data.
Pony.ai’s Zhang said the company is cleaning up its data by removing sensitive information such as vehicle license plate numbers and data relating to a person’s identity – including erasing faces from videos.
He said only a limited group of people have access to sensitive data and that Chinese data remains in China, while all American data remains in the US.
Pony.ai claims it has a valuation of $8.5 billion as of March 2022. Zhang said the company aims to break even by 2025.
Chinese technology giant Baidu operates robotaxis, under the brand name Apollo Go, in other cities in China and claims to have completed more than 3.3 million rides.
In June, the tech giant said it had received approval to operate robotaxis without staff in a Shenzhen suburb. That followed a similar approval in August 2022 to remove human staff from some robotaxis in parts of Wuhan and Chongqing.
Pony.ai also operates robotaxis in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai, Zhang said.
— CNBC’s Kif Leswing and Lora Kolodny contributed to this story.