AutoX RoboTaxi

2020

Testing of cars without drivers and operators on public roads in China

At the beginning of December, 2020 it became known that the startup of AutoX which attracted investments from Alibaba, MediaTek and Shanghai Motors earlier unrolls the park from 25 completely unmanned vehicles in the center of Shenzhen. China for the first time permitted tests of UAVs without the insuring driver or the removed operator.

The representative of AutoX reported TechCrunch that the cars held for use as the robotaxi, meanwhile will not be able to transport passengers, but will be able to move on public roads. In China the startup of AutoX achieved this success 5 months later after got permission to testing of cars without drivers from authorities of the state California.

On the Chinese public roads cars without drivers and operators began to go

AutoX said that the company got support of local authorities that does Shenzhen by one of the advanced cities in respect of use of pilotless cars. The command of a startup paid attention to safety of the robotaxi, the high level of security managed to be reached thanks to the patented XCU block. This technology has extremely high processing speed for the solution of difficult road situations.

Till December, 2020 AutoX unmanned vehicles were tested in the special closed zones on roads of China without presence at salon of the person. The companies permitted to come to public roads at a condition of finding of the driver in salon which could control process. Within testing the startup started more than 100 such cars for training of an auto pilot which was improved by data collection from different regions of the country.

Other startups also work on implementation of unmanned vehicles in China. As a result each city will receive the own park of cars. For example, in Shenzhen - AutoX and Deeproute.ai, in Guangzhou - Pony.ai and WeRide, Momenta - in Suzhou, and in Beijing - Apollo Baidu, and is only some of the companies.^[1]

Service is available to everyone

In the middle of August, 2020 the Chinese company AutoX started public service of a call of the robotaxi in Shanghai. Originally the service will be available around Tszyadin Shanghai with the population 1.47 million people. The taxi without driver can be reserved through the application for smartphones AutoNavi from Alibaba Group or through the Letzgo application.

AutoX concluded strategic partnership with Letzgo company for providing service via more popular application. It is remarkable that Letzgo which is based in Shanghai and working in 18 cities of continental China belongs to Volkswagen AG. Under the terms of the transaction, AutoX provides the platform of the AutoX Driver robotaxi, and Letzgo will manage vehicle fleet and to distribute the taxi on calls.

In Shanghai service of the taxi without drivers is started

Since April, 2020 service was available to a limited number of the users connected to the pilot program. Now to call self-driving taxi anyone.

During COVID-19 era the AutoX company took special precautionary measures for security: it is enough to clients to tell the last four digits of number of the mobile phone to the voice recognition system in the car to begin the travel. During the trip passengers can monitor the promotion using the internal screen. On it objects around the car that passengers could estimate independently as the autonomous vehicle perceives the world are also displayed and makes decisions.

The company already tests the services of the robotaxi in Shenzhen, Wuhan and Wuhu and also in several other cities worldwide, and is going to start the commercial services there. The company already tested earlier the autonomous delivery services of food in San Jose, California, and as it was reported, considers the possibility of provision of services in Mountain View and Palo Alto. AutoX also states that in July, 2019 it organized the first trip to the robotaxi in California.^[2]

AutoX RoboTaxi start

On April 27, 2020 there was information on start in Shanghai of the joint project of an automobile startup of AutoX and the belonging Alibaba Group of Autonavi company. Thanks to this project residents will be able to use taxi services without drivers now.

To make a trip to the taxi which is managed by the computer it is necessary to use the mobile application of Amap developed by Autonavi. Clients an opportunity to call the taxi with the driver or without it, depending on what machine is most closer is given. If it is the self-propelled car — that will arrive it. The choice is made by the program.

There was information on start in Shanghai of the joint project of an automobile startup of AutoX and the belonging Alibaba Group of Autonavi company

The option is available only to those users who submitted the application for a call of self-propelled cars before AutoX and Autonavi started the project.

In the main RoboTaxi — the self-propelled AutoX cars so are called — service inhabitants near Jiading in the northwest of Shanghai which population makes about 1.5 million people.

Seamless combination of self-propelled taxi and taxi under control of drivers — an important step to commercializations of new type of transport — the founder and the chief executive of AutoX Xiao Jianxiong said. In total the company is going to start 100 autonomous vehicles in Shanghai. For their service the base about 7.4 thousand square meters is created.

On the Labor Day which is celebrated in China on May 1 partners are going to make the taxi without drivers available for all comers. This day the companies are going to make trips to RoboTaxi free.

RoboTaxi are constructed based on the Fiat Chrysler cars — the startup signed the partnership agreement with this car maker at the beginning of 2020. In 2019 AutoX already released the cars on streets of Shenzhen and California (USA).^[3]

Robotics

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