
China’s first report on self-driving cars won’t tell you how safe they are
Report covers driverless cars from 8 companies: Baidu, Pony.ai, Nio, Daimler, Tencent, Beijing New Energy Automobile, Audi and Didi
The report gives stats on 54 self-driving vehicles from 8 companies: Baidu, Pony.ai, Nio, Daimler, Tencent, Beijing New Energy Automobile, Audi and Didi. Together they drove more than 153,565 kilometers (95,420 miles) in Beijing in 2018 without a single accident, according to the report.
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If you want to get a glimpse of how these Chinese companies’ self-driving companies compare with each other, the report doesn’t help. The only thing a reader will glean here is the number of vehicles deployed and total miles driven. The disengagement rate, an important metric used in California tests to show how often human drivers have to intervene, is missing in China’s first report.
Trendforce analyst Caroline Chen agrees that the report may not be valuable for judging who is ahead in the autonomous driving race, saying the report doesn’t offer much information.
“This is the first time Beijing released a self-driving report,” Chen said. “It’s more aimed at demonstrating Beijing’s progress on self-driving.”
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