China - August 02, 2024

China's auto industry racing to autonomous future

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The world’s largest experiment in driverless cars is underway on the busy streets of Wuhan.

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He Jingyi, Reporter:

"I'm at my hotel in Wuhan, and today I will go to my shooting location in a self-driving robot taxi. Let's see how it goes!

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Here comes my robot taxi.

We're moving at about 30-kilometers an hour. The robo-taxi smoothly handles complex urban challenges, like making a U-turn on a ramp and maneuvering around hesitant pedestrians.

This fleet of nearly 500 vehicles now serves an area covering half of Wuhan's population. Its company, the Chinese tech giant Baidu, has ambitious plans to double the number, aiming for 1,000 fully self-driving taxis by the end of the year.

Wuhan is just one of twenty Chinese cities pioneering self-driving technology under a government initiative to promote what’s called vehicle-road-cloud integration.

The country aimed at putting smart connected vehicles on the road - by 2026.

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Zhao Xia, Deputy director, Regional Economic Research Institute of Yangtze River, Hubei Provincial Academy of Social Sciences Institute:

"The initial investment for vehicle-road collaboration is significant, with costs for intelligent upgrades exceeding 2 million yuan, or 280,000 US dollars per kilometer."

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Despite the cost, the country remains determined. The just-concluded third plenary session emphasized the importance of planning and guiding the rapid development of emerging and future industries

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Han Wenxiu, Executive deputy director, Office of Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs:

"We must follow the directives of the third plenary session to develop new quality productive forces locally, expand emerging industries, and plan for future industries. "

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Consulting firm McKinsey projects the sector could generate between 300 billion to 400 billion US dollars in revenue by 2035 in part due to support from Beijing to roll out more pilot programs.

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Karin Kong, Head of global technology research team, TianFeng Securities:

"The Chinese [capital] market is really excited about the potential value of robo-taxis. Self-driving cars could make profits with good [new] models this year."

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At least 19 Chinese automakers and their suppliers are competing to establish global leadership in the field.

Governments in major Chinese cities are establishing regulatory frameworks for the self-driving industry.

[Restriction: No access Chinese mainland]