which had been marred by a fatal accident in 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\nUber, and its ride-hailing rival Lyft, are now partnering with Chinese firms.<\/p>\n
That gives them automatic “access to millions of customers that they wouldn’t have if they created their own app,” says Tu Le, founder of consultancy Sino Auto Insights.<\/p>\n
“Through these partnerships, they’re able to commercialise and broaden their scope.”<\/p>\n
Although Chinese companies are able to manufacture cheaply, Waymo has spent years building expertise in customer service and the app technology.<\/p>\n
“Having experienced Waymo and the WeRides and the Ponys… I would have to say the user experience for Waymo is much better than all the other competitors. I feel like Waymo is really becoming a standard mode of transportation for California,” says Tu Le.<\/p>\n
Perceptions also differ across markets.<\/p>\n
In the US, unions have warned robotaxis could displace taxi, delivery and freight drivers. <\/p>\n
China’s policymakers present automation as a remedy for its shrinking workforce but government censorship of dissenting voices makes it difficult to gauge opinions in the wider population.<\/p>\n
President Xi Jinping has promoted AI and robotics as part of China’s drive to develop “new quality productive forces” – that will create jobs and boost economic growth. <\/p>\n
And so there are incentives and impetus for companies to invest in the technology and expand.<\/p>\n
One of the industry’s arguments is that autonomous vehicles could improve mobility for people who cannot easily drive themselves.<\/p>\n
“If we can bring the cost down for a robotaxi ride so that it’s as cheap – or maybe even cheaper – than hailing an Uber with a normal driver, then it really helps broaden mobility,” Le says. “Elderly folks, folks that are disabled – these robotaxis really allow them a lot more ability to travel.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chinese companies are expanding globally, and fast. Their biggest commercial competitors are in the US. Waymo, Alphabet’s robotaxi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-677987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}