More than 70% of Baidu Apollo Go robotaxi rides in Wuhan were fully driverless as of April, and the company said in May it expected 100% of the rides to be completely autonomous in coming quarters.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
BEIJING — China’s yearslong effort to develop robotaxis is starting to gain traction with consumers — but it’s also rattling taxi drivers worried about losing their jobs as a result of increasing competition.
Just as GM‘s Cruise and Alphabet‘s Waymo have rolled out driverless taxis in San Francisco and Phoenix, Arizona, local Chinese governments from Beijing to Guangzhou have allowed domestic players to operate robotaxi rides for the public.
This week, the rising prominence of robotaxis in China began trending on social media.
As of Thursday morning, videos about fully autonomous driving taxi experiences were the 12th most popular topic on Douyin, Bytedance’s China version of TikTok.
Baidu‘s robotaxi unit Apollo Go became one …