Autonomous taxis are creating chaos in China, Why?

Wuhan –

autonomous taxi driverless begins to spread in China. However, apart from attracting residents due to their luxury, hundreds of robotaxes seem to have caused chaos in the city of Wuhan.

A fleet of autonomous vehicles made by Chinese tech giant Baidu are causing traffic jams due to reckless driving, frustrating city residents. The same thing on a smaller scale has also happened in the United States so that this autonomous technology is considered immature or perhaps human drivers are careless.

Currently, Baidu services are not yet available in all cities in China. But even in this limited trial, the vehicle had difficulty adapting to the country’s driving culture, which often goes against traffic regulations.

Named detikINET from Futurism, Baidu has installed more than 500 electric robotaxis in Wuhan, about half of what the company plans to install by the end of the year under the Apollo Go brand.

Although the fleet makes up only a fraction of the number of taxis in the city, freelance human drivers are worried they will lose their jobs as the technology sector continues to push autonomous vehicles.

“It is exciting to see robotaxi come to fruition, but it is not clear how taxi drivers will face the challenge, and how the government will find a balance between technological advances and weak labor market conditions,” wrote economist Pinpoint Asset Management Zhiwei Zhang.

Baidu has been aggressive in launching its robotaxi service by offering huge discounts. Experts fear the strategy could make the service commercially unviable.

In short, it remains to be seen whether the approach will bear fruit. It’s not just Baidu that is struggling to integrate driverless taxis into busy urban environments, American companies including Alphabet’s Waymo and General Motors’ Cruise are experiencing the same problem.

It remains to be seen if Elon Musk’s Tesla can come in and change the situation. Musk recently announced that Tesla will launch a robotaxi at the end of 2024.

(fyk/fyk)