China's Robotaxis Hit the Road

https://www.eetimes.com/chinas-robotaxis-hit-the-road/

52 44 5 years ago

dustintrex2• 5 years ago

It's remarkable how little press these get in the West. One question not addressed in the article though: what does the safety record look like?

shadilay2• 5 years ago

I imagine they'll be programmed to run over a pedestrian twice if they hit one.

'Driven to Kill - Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit.'

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/09/why-drivers-in-c...

kierkegaard7• 5 years ago

I wonder how true that article is

mensetmanusman4• 5 years ago

“ Most people agree that the hit-to-kill phenomenon stems at least in part from perverse laws on victim compensation. In China the compensation for killing a victim in a traffic accident is relatively small—amounts typically range from $30,000 to $50,000—and once payment is made, the matter is over. By contrast, paying for lifetime care for a disabled survivor can run into the millions. The Chinese press recently described how one disabled man received about $400,000 for the first 23 years of his care. Drivers who decide to hit-and-kill do so because killing is far more economical. Indeed, Zhao Xiao Cheng—the man caught on a security camera video driving over a grandmother five times—ended up paying only about $70,000 in compensation.”

Interesting to see economics play a life and death role. It’s analogous to the millions of forced gender selective abortions in China due to the experienced lower economic value of girls and the 1-child policy.

schleck8• 5 years ago

This doesn't have anything to do with 'the west'. Cruise doesn't get any mainstream media coverage either, and neither do Waymo or Mobileye.

The only one frequently shown is Tesla's self driving because of the brand being used as buzzword.

dustintrex2• 5 years ago

I'm not talking about mainstream media, but industry sites like HN. Waymo, Tesla, Otto, Cruise, Comma.ai etc feature(d) here regularly, but I don't think I've ever seen a Chinese self-driving car on the front page before.

mensetmanusman4• 5 years ago

Maybe, I think it is more likely due to the huge presence of free advertising in the form of YouTubers driving around in their FSD betas.

tdrdt6• 5 years ago

Sometimes I have to think about the Wright brothers. In most today's societies there is no way to be like those brothers. Everything is so heavy regulated to avoid risk that no risk can be taken.

Maybe this is why China will succeed to be the first to have level 5 self driving.

gremloni2• 5 years ago

I think Tesla will get there first purely because Elon Musk is smart and ballsy enough to just go ahead and do it though it may not be entirely safe. It is what it takes to get innovation through this system. I’m personally blown away by the difference between FSD v8 and the current v10.2

tdrdt6• 5 years ago

Tesla's level 2 FSD is still behind companies that are already at level 4.

foepys• 5 years ago

The Wright brothers only endangered themselves.

Autonomous vehicles endanger everybody around them. If electric, those vehicles weigh well over 2 tonnes and have the potential to kill people even inside other vehicles.

"Some of you may die but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make" is not a good motto.

renewiltord2• 5 years ago

We don’t allow people to hurt themselves. Sometimes it is only through violation of these ethical norms that we get progress: cardiac catheterization is the classic example.

tdrdt6• 5 years ago

But China is a country that is different. I can imagine they take some accidents for granted when they can be the number one in the world. Because that will be good for the whole country.

zpeti2• 5 years ago

They literally let a satellite crash to earth without knowing where it will land, worldwide.

So yeah, their risk tolerance is probably higher :)

SapporoChris• 5 years ago

Skylab https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab fell to the earth without precise knowledge of where it would land.

yorwba• 5 years ago

You might want to actually read some of the regulations that need to be complied with to run a self-driving trial in Beijing http://www.beijing.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengcefagui/202102/W02021... before jumping to the conclusion that an absence of regulation will lead to faster technological progress.

inglor_cz• 5 years ago

Arguably, the private space sector is modern equivalent of the Wright brothers. The regulations do not seem to be as onerous as to prevent founding of new companies such as RocketLab or Astra.

bigger_inside• 5 years ago

exactly. corporate capitalism killed innovation; the poisons are liability, intellectual property, and monopolization in tech that uses the first two in the starting lanes to stop competition, and buyouts if competition makes it to the finish lane.

YeGoblynQueenne• 5 years ago

Note:

> The vast majority of robotaxi operations use safety drivers. Driverless robotaxis trials have emerged in the last year and will grow. Driverless robotaxis have teleoperation-based remote operation as a backup for a safety driver.

In terms of your analogy that's as if the Wright brothers only "flew" in the sense that Orvil carried Wilbur on his back while Wilbur flapped his arms and yelled "I'm flying!".

Western efforts aren't any better. It's not regulation that's keeping anything back. It's the lack of a clear path towards convincing "autonomous" technology.

HeyLaughingBoy• 5 years ago

Huh? Does this change your mind? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fqofZWMJpk

ChemSpider• 5 years ago

Interesting topic, but this is a low quality article without any sources or links for further reading.

The author did not even bother to embed video clips of the robotaxis(?) navigating thru Shanghai or Guangzhou traffic.

What I found does not look very impressive - if compared to Tesla or Waymo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkI68JuhvUw

Does anyone have better videos?

the-dude2• 5 years ago

Driver engages : https://youtu.be/AkI68JuhvUw?t=172

axiosgunnar• 5 years ago

Nice catch!

baybal2• 5 years ago

There were fully driverless busses around 5 years ago near the Western Digital campus in Shenzhen.

They drove on fully segregated roads, and traffic was centrally controlled.

dasefx• 5 years ago

Yeah, this one is impressive to me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swwdaKotXT8

mensetmanusman4• 5 years ago

Wow billions and billions invested in multiple companies with different strategies. Goes to show that if driverless tech is solved and we have a winner take all scenario that we usually see in tech, a car company letter may have to be added amongst the FAANG acronym.

Confiks• 5 years ago

Interesting except from the article:

"Baidu maintains two strategies for its AV activities: Apollo open source AV software platform and its own AV products based on Apollo software technology. The internet giant has already built an impressive Apollo open source ecosystem, with more than 200 companies participating."

Which indeed [1] is Apache licensed.

[1] https://github.com/ApolloAuto

China's Robotaxis Hit the Road

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