Uber announced that it will partner with Chinese robotaxi firm WeRide to bring driverless vehicles to the United Arab Emirates “later this year.” If this comes to pass, it would provide much better visibility into the progress of Chinese autonomous vehicle development.
A variety of Chinese autonomous vehicle companies have release impressive demonstration videos, and announced seemingly-large service areas for driverless operations. But it’s been a bit hard for observers outside China to tell how real these accomplishments are. A lot of Chinese services run off of mobile payment platforms that are hard for foreigners to access. And, post-COVID, travel to China from the US has become a bit of a dicey geopolitical proposition.
Even within China the robustness and extent of Chinese AV efforts may be hard to grasp, due to the Communist Party’s censorship of media and communications.
Bringing those vehicles outside of China, to a more open and transparent domain, would be fascinating.
David Silver 