Driverless ‘RoboTaxis’ hit Beijing streets
‘RoboTaxis’ are now on the rise in some parts of Beijing, with no human drivers.
It’s part of a plan to create so-called ‘smart cities’ and modernize China’s urban areas.
CGTN’s Zheng Chunying takes a look.
It’s part of a plan to create so-called ‘smart cities’ and modernize China’s urban areas.
CGTN’s Zheng Chunying takes a look.
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NewsTranscript
00:00A taxi without a driver at the wheel. Yes, it's possible. Baidu's Apollo Go is a Chinese
00:08autonomous ride-sharing service launched in 2017 in the suburban Beijing city district
00:13of Yijuan, or E-Town. Now, these driverless cabs are making advances on road to commercial
00:19operation. And today, I'd like to give it a try. So now all I have to do is to enter
00:25the last four digits of my registered phone number. And then the door will automatically
00:33open. See, no one is inside except for us. So now let's fasten our seatbelts and press
00:42the button. Wow, it's moving. Wow. On the road, the robot taxi made turns, changed lanes
00:57to overtake another car, and negotiated its way around the streets. And there's a button
01:04that can be used to call for help in case of an emergency. And now, Beijing has allowed
01:10many robot taxis, including Apollo Go, to offer such driverless vehicle services at
01:14Beijing Daxing International Airport. Wow, here we arrived safely. It takes us about
01:22ten minutes for five kilometers, just as a regular taxi. From sanitation to security
01:28patrol vehicles, buses to delivery cars, self-driving vehicles are becoming part of residents'
01:35everyday lives. And all of this is inseparable from China's determination to deepen reforms
01:41while achieving greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology. Over the
01:46past few years, China has made significant investments in technology, seen in the rising
01:51numbers of high-tech talents, contracts, and patents in the field. In 2023, there were
01:57950,000 technology contracts signed, with the transaction volume reaching more than
02:036 trillion yuan, marking a more than 28 percent increase year on year. The number
02:08of authorized investment patents reached more than 920,000, a rise of over 15 percent year
02:15on year. Well, China has an extreme level of innovation. Chinese growth in the future
02:22will be driven by technology and innovation. That's the only solution. And that's how China
02:28will really escape the middle-income trap, you know, and become a developed nation with
02:34a high level of GDP per capita. Looking ahead, the Chinese government has pledged to allocate
02:40370 billion yuan for science and technology in 2024 as part of its efforts to advance
02:47innovation. And Beijing's E-Town is ready to follow the task. We'll implement more application
02:53scenarios for vehicle-road collaborative autonomous driving. We'll also accelerate
02:58the research and development of core technologies, gather more talents for scientific research,
03:04and achieve more scientific research results. It's hoped the move will not only create more
03:09market potential that benefits Chinese tech companies such as Baidu's Apolgo, but also
03:15drive the country's economic growth and better serve people's lives.
03:19Cheng Xuying, CGTN, Beijing.