Chinese Tesla rival Xpeng steers clear of robotaxis, says self-driving trucks more likely to succeed
- It is difficult for self-driving systems to replace human drivers, especially in densely populated cities, Xpeng’s head of autonomous driving says
- Self-driving long-haul trucks and robots handling last-mile deliveries are more likely to be successfully automated, according to Xinzhou Wu
Major Chinese self-driving companies such as Baidu, Didi Chuxing, WeRide and AutoX have all recently launched robotaxi services in various cities, but the head of autonomous driving at Xpeng Motors is less bullish on the prospect.
“They have to make a robot driver completely beat a human driver to be able to generate value for the society, which is pretty tough,” said Xpeng vice-president Xinzhou Wu, speaking to the media on Tuesday. He added that drivers and taxi fares were more affordable in China than in Western markets, making it harder to argue for robotaxis from a cost perspective.
Another factor, Wu said, was that robotaxis were more likely to make money in densely populated cities rather than in suburbs, but the traffic conditions in such environments were also more challenging.
“Truck deliveries always happens on the highway, which is a much more structured environment … [for delivery robots] the environment is also sophisticated and difficult, but because the speed is lower the risk is lower as well.”
Tesla’s China rival gets US$587 million funding for expansion, new plant
The promise of a driverless future has drawn billions of dollars of investment globally and is becoming one of the key sectors in artificial intelligence, an industry where both China and the US are seeking supremacy.
Yet, despite improvements in autonomous technologies, fully autonomous driving has been hard to achieve due to the complexities inherent in navigating busy, real-world environments.
Wu said that as a carmaker, Xpeng’s focus for autonomous driving was to make driving “more fun” for its customers by incrementally improving its vehicles’ basic features.
03:06
China’s self-driving RoboTaxi hits the road
Wu is not the only major industry figure to recently raise doubts about the profitability of robotaxis, which were previously regarded as among the best ways to make money from autonomous driving technologies in the near future.
Baidu launched a public robotaxi service in Yizhuang, Haidian, and Shunyi districts in Beijing in September, making it the third city after Changsha in Hunan province and Cangzhou in Hebei province where the company has launched robotaxi services.