In June of this year, hundreds of self-driving taxis were seen driving on the streets of Wuhan. Baidu, the company operating these taxis, announced in May that they would add another 1000 so-called robot taxis to their fleet in Wuhan. As the number of autonomous taxis and passengers increases, Chinese drivers are feeling anxious.
According to a report by Reuters on August 8th, 36-year-old Liu Yi, a resident of Wuhan, is one of the 7 million online car-hailing drivers in China. Due to a slowdown in construction projects caused by a surplus of unsold apartments nationwide, he started driving part-time.
Now, he stands by his car watching his neighbors hail self-driving taxis, predicting another crisis looming ahead. “Everyone will go hungry,” he said, referring to the competition between Wuhan drivers and Baidu’s subsidiary, Apollo Go, for customers.
Baidu and the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology declined to comment when approached by Reuters.
In China, at least 16 cities have allowed companies to test autonomous vehicles on public roads, with at least 19 Chinese automakers and their suppliers entering the field. No other country has taken such aggressive actions.
Economists and industry experts have stated that with thousands of self-driving taxis appearing on Chinese streets, Chinese online car-hailing and taxi drivers are among the first employees in the world facing the threat of AI-induced unemployment.
In July of this year, news from NetEase revealed that taxi drivers in Wuhan collectively petitioned the government to cancel “Apollo Go,” as it is encroaching on their livelihoods, posing a crisis for the survival of taxi drivers. Most taxi drivers are working-class individuals, not seeking riches but simply striving for three meals a day to support their families. However, the emergence of self-driving taxis undoubtedly threatens the jobs of many taxi drivers.
Apollo Go has been providing 24/7 unmanned car services in some areas of Wuhan since March of this year. They plan to deploy 1,000 autonomous taxis in Wuhan by the end of the year and operate in 100 cities by 2030. Startup company Pony.ai operates 300 self-driving taxis and plans to add another 1,000 by 2026.
Former CEO of Alphabet’s self-driving technology company Waymo, John Krafcik, told Reuters that in the United States, developers of self-driving taxis face stricter scrutiny and higher barriers.
While self-driving taxis in China have raised safety concerns, the Chinese authorities have approved testing to support economic goals, leading to a rapid increase in the number of autonomous fleets.
Sources familiar with the matter said that some Chinese companies are attempting to test autonomous vehicles in the United States, but the White House is preparing to ban the use of cars developed using Chinese systems.
In a report by Voice of America, Professor Qiao Chunming, a prominent professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and Director of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, stated that within the autonomous taxi industry, Google’s Waymo currently has the most mature technology.