TECHDIGEST – China’s ride-hailing giant Didi is back in public view after two years of staying low amid a regulatory crackdown.

According to TechCrunch, the SoftBank-backed company announced Friday at a company open day a series of product ambitions, including working with Chinese carmakers to deploy self-developed robotaxis to the public on a 24/7 basis by 2025, which would complement its network of millions of drivered cars.

In 2020, Didi created an autonomous driving subsidiary that went on to raise funding from SoftBank, an existing investor in the parent firm. Like most robotaxi companies, Didi opted to partner with OEMs to build its autonomous fleets. It’s so far used vehicles from Lincoln, BYD, Nissan, and Volvo.

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In 2021, the company said it would be buying cars from Volvo, an old partner of Uber, to work on “hundreds of autonomous drive-ready vehicles with backup systems.”

Aside from robotaxis that resemble conventional passenger cars, Didi is touting a concept vehicle tailored completely to self-driving. The concept car, which was unveiled at its open day in a demo video, is a spacious rectangular van with no steering wheel or driver’s seat (shown above). Instead, “Neuron”, what the car is called, features a large in-car infotainment screen, and has a robotic arm that can pick up suitcases and hand passengers a bottle of water.

Didi is also automating maintenance services for its vehicles. In a video, the company shows its autonomous cars getting washed, charged, and checked at its service center — all done without human help.

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TECHDIGEST – Chinese tech company Baidu has announced that it can now operate robotaxis in a part of the capital city of Beijing with no human staff or driver inside.

According to CNBC, the move eliminates the labor cost for operating self-driving taxis — up to the permitted number of cars.

The government approval initially covers 10 vehicles in the Beijing suburb of Yizhuang, which is home to many corporations such as JD.com.

The suburb is the primary site of Baidu’s robotaxi public road testing and operation in Beijing city. In November 2021, local authorities allowed Baidu and rival robotaxi operator Pony.ai to charge fares for rides.

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Public transport users can book heavily subsidized robotaxi rides through the companies’ apps.

Since the third quarter, Baidu claimed that in major Chinese cities, its self-driving taxis complete an average of more than 15 rides per vehicle per day — on par with traditional ride-hailing services.

Baidu said in August it received approval to operate a handful of driverless and staff-less robotaxis in suburbs of major Chinese cities like Wuhan and Chongqing.

In the U.S., laws for testing robotaxis and charging riders also vary by city and state.

Alphabet’s Waymo and General Motors’ subsidiary Cruise have operated public robotaxi services in the U.S. with no human staff inside.

Baidu shares briefly soared by more than 15 per cent during Hong Kong trading on Friday.

The stock closed at eight-week lows Thursday after the company revealed its artificial intelligence-powered Ernie bot, a Chinese-language rival to ChatGPT. CEO Robin Li said the company’s Ernie bot was not perfect, and emphasized the need to improve the product.

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Tesla and Musk have often missed targets to start producing vehicles.

Tesla will build a vehicle dedicated for use as a robotaxi, and it will start making three new vehicles next year, CEO Elon Musk told fans at a party celebrating the opening of a Texas factory.

Musk didn’t give details of the robotaxi other than to say it will “look quite futuristic.” He also said Tesla will start building the Cybertruck pickup at its new factory near Austin, Texas, next year. After that, it will start building a new

Roadster and an electric semi, he said.

He made his remarks Thursday night at the “Cyber Rodeo at Giga Texas,” an invitation-only party for thousands of guests at Tesla’s new billion-dollar-plus factory.
As many as 15,000 people were expected to attend the private event hosted to mark the opening of the new factory in Travis County that also serves as the company’s new headquarters following its move from California.

Musk said at the Thursday night event streamed live on YouTube that Tesla was delivering the first Model Y small SUVs built at the new factory, which he said can make a half million of the SUVs per year.

Tesla and Musk have often missed targets to start producing vehicles. In 2019, he promised a fleet of autonomous robotaxis would be on the road the following year, but the company’s “Full Self-Driving” software is still being tested by selected Tesla owners on public roads.

The company is the largest maker of electric vehicles in the US and the world.

Musk said this year will be about scaling up the Austin factory as well as a new one in Germany. He also said the company may start building a robot in 2023. “Next year there’s going to be a massive wave of new products,” he told the crowd Thursday night.

A county-issued permit said the event included interactive tours, food, alcohol and live entertainment. But the event was off-limits to the general public and the news media.

Musk has said the Austin-area plant will employ up to 10,000 workers.

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