The First 100 Days with AutoX’s Fully Driverless RoboTaxi

The AutoX Team @ May 7, 2021

The launch of AutoX’s fully driverless RoboTaxi in January 2021 was a major milestone for AutoX as it provided the first commercial RoboTaxi service in Asia and made AutoX the second company in the world to operate a RoboTaxi service without a safety driver in the vehicle.

A representative from the AutoX operations team said the fully driverless RoboTaxi service has been "well received" by Shenzhen residents and officials alike. Within the first 100 days of operation, AutoX RoboTaxi has won over a group of loyal users from the traditional ride-hailing market.

“The first 100 days have been a huge step forward for us and for the entire industry. We have learned so much from the feedback from our passengers about how to continuously improve our service to make the driverless journeys a fantastic experience,” said Professor Jianxiong Xiao, the founder and CEO of AutoX.

Shenzhen is the first and only city in Asia where fully driverless cars can operate on public roads. Beijing, by contrast, only allows autonomous driverless vehicles to operate with a “backseat safety driver” present in the second row or co-driver seat and vehicles may only drive within closed campuses or zones. Similarly, Guangzhou also requires a “backseat safety driver” in the vehicles with remote control and they are only permitted to drive at low speeds.

“Our interactions with AutoX operations have been very positive. And this service also provides a great example for us to further polish the legislative framework for fully self-driving cars,” said a Shenzhen official.

The city government of Shenzhen announced recently that it will pass legislation permitting Level 4 self-driving cars on its streets, making Shenzhen the first city in Asia to do so.

To mark this exciting news, AutoX also released a two-hour video of its fully driverless RoboTaxi continuously driving. The video is very impressive as it shows the capability of AutoX’s vehicles, including how they drive near other vehicles and cyclists drive in the opposite direction, nudging around illegally parked vehicles and oversized trucks, handle aggressive cut-ins by other vehicles, change lanes and even drive on the opposite lane to bypass other vehicles, and avoid motorcyclists violating traffic rules. In the two-hours of consecutive driving, the car takes 16 ride orders and passes through many Shenzhen landmarks, including the headquarter of BYD, the research center of Evergrande Group, parks, schools, hospitals, construction sites, residential and industrial areas.

The video also showcases the fact that AutoX’s vehicles are fully driverless, unlike RoboTaxi competitors in Asia, which still have “backseat safety drivers.”

AutoX will continue to improve and expand its product offering by introducing new features and capabilities of its RoboTaxi service. In particular, AutoX will upgrade its sensor hardware system of the fleet to the latest version – the AutoX Gen 5 setup – which will include six high-resolution lidars and eight high-resolution 4D imaging radars.