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Author | Dawn Zhou Jifeng Liu Dandan
Edit | dawn
Self-driving taxis are getting closer and closer to us.
Recently, there have been many landmark events in the Robotaxi (self-driving taxi) industry.
On April 24, Xiaoma Zhixing obtained the 2022 taxi capacity index in Nansha District, Guangzhou, which is the first taxi license issued to an autonomous driving enterprise in China.
On April 26, GAC's Ruqi Travel announced the completion of a round of financing of more than 1 billion yuan, with Xiaoma Zhixing and Wenyuan Zhixing jointly participating, which is the first time that two Robotaxi companies have invested in the same travel platform.
On April 28, Beijing issued a notice of unmanned manned demonstration application, allowing autonomous vehicles to "no one behind the steering wheel", which is equivalent to removing the main driver safety officer, Baidu Radish Run, And Ma Zhixing obtained licenses.
In Beijing Yizhuang, Baidu has invested in 10 "main driving unmanned" autonomous vehicles, and plans to add another 30 vehicles. This means that if you hit a ride-hailing car in Beijing, you may really hit a driverless car, the kind without a driver. Previously, Baidu had obtained a commercial operation license, allowing unmanned vehicles to charge on the road.
After exploring and testing self-driving taxis for so many years, are they about to start really reaching the general public? What is it like to ride a self-driving taxi?
Shentu chatted with 4 people who had taken Robotaxi, and from their eyes, you could more intuitively feel the progress of the industry.
The ride-hailing process is similar to Didi, but only from site to site
Zhao Deng | 31 years old, an Internet practitioner in Beijing
I took a turnip run once in March this year.
At that time, I went to Beijing Yizhuang to run an errand, and after getting out of the subway station in RongjingdongJie, I had to walk a distance. On the road, from time to time, I would see cars speeding by, these cars are very strange in shape, there is a crater-like thing on the roof, and it is also a bit like a watchtower (I later learned that it was lidar, used to identify road conditions).
These cars do not have license plates, but they have some signs on the side, and I see more turnip fast running and pony zhixing. This is robotaxi, which I've heard many times before. Later, I learned from the driver that some of these cars were testing, and some of them were in trial operation.
After the day's work, just in time for the evening rush hour in Beijing, Didi taxi had to queue up, and it was difficult to wait. So I downloaded a radish run, planning to try the famous Robotaxi to see if it was a gimmick.
After downloading, registering, and submitting your personally identifiable information, locate the nearest site, enter the endpoint, submit your order, and then wait for the driver (to be more precise, a driverless vehicle) to take the order. The whole process is very similar to Didi Taxi. One thing is different, radish run has a fixed stop, just like the bus, can only stop to stop.
At that time, because it was the evening rush hour, there were many cars on the road, so I waited for 10 minutes and finally had a car to take the order. But after receiving the order, the car drove in only 3 minutes. There was a safety officer in the main car, but he wasn't driving the car, he was just ready to take over at any time.
The 2-kilometer journey, which took less than 5 minutes, passed several traffic light intersections on the way, and there were also turns and parallel lines, and the safety officer did not take over the whole process.
It still feels quite novel. Sitting in the back row, you can see that the steering wheel of the main driver is moving by itself, according to the different rotation amplitudes of different road conditions, when the intersection turns, the steering wheel will turn faster. There is a display behind the front seats where you can see the vehicle's driving directions and whether there are any turns ahead. There is a line on each side of the car, which should be the lane line, and the car is driving in the middle of the two lines.
Source / Courtesy of respondent
The starting, acceleration and braking of the vehicle are still relatively stable, similar to the foot sensation of the old driver, and it is difficult to feel that this is a machine-controlled car. To be honest, I think it is more stable than a taxi, the frustration of the taxi acceleration and deceleration, and the tilt of the parallel overtaking are quite obvious, and it may also be because the speed of this car is slower, and the fastest speed of the whole journey is more than 40 kilometers per hour, so the stability is better.
Halfway to communicate with the safety officer, he said that under normal circumstances, he does not need to take over the vehicle, most of the road conditions of the vehicle can be automatically autonomous, except for some extreme scenarios, such as bicycle retrograde, other cars in violation of the line, overtaking, etc., may cause the vehicle to brake. In this case, he may need to take over, but after the security officer is cancelled later, Baidu can also remotely control the vehicle through the cloud. Sounds a bit like playing with a RC car.
If you pass through Yizhuang in Beijing, you can see a lot of this Robotaxi in some sections, many of which are Baidu's radish run. I don't know how much of it is being tested, how much of it is actually in operation, and how many citizens have experienced this new thing.
But a very intuitive feeling is that these technology companies are slowly moving the things in the laboratory to real life. Only when you stand on the street and see those unmanned cars driving silently, you will find that self-driving taxis are not far away from us.
The driving level of unmanned taxis is not as good as that of old drivers but hanging novices
Fishing Village Golden Cicada Boy | 33-year-old Shenzhen advertiser
Around 2020, a lot of news is reporting about unmanned taxis, and my heart is a little itchy, especially I want to experience it.
A year later, Shenzhen also had Robotaxi start trial operation, so I quickly made an appointment. I booked a Robotaxi tour from YuanRong, and the route was from Guan Shanyue Art Museum to Donggualing Subway Station, and the whole journey was only one or two kilometers.
Unlike ordinary taxis, the robotaxi, which is in trial operation, needs to be boarded at the connection point set by the system, and passengers need to choose the nearest connection point to get on or off the bus.
What was more surprising was that when I stood at the station point, I found that it was a modified Lincoln, and it was necessary for an unmanned taxi to be so luxurious?
After sitting in the car, I felt that the whole driving process was very smooth and smooth, and the safety officer only touched the steering wheel when leaving, and basically did not participate in the driving of the vehicle at other times.
Image source / Pexels
It must be emphasized that the traffic on the street is relatively large, and in addition to the zebra crossing U-turn, unmanned vehicles also need to turn left at the main road intersection of Hongli Road to Caitian Road for more than one minute. These seemingly slightly more complicated sections, Robotaxi, are all well done, only slightly slower at zebra crossing U-turns and left at intersections, but they are still relatively smooth.
Overall, the driving level of unmanned taxis is not as good as that of old drivers, especially when it comes to parallel lines and turns, the reaction is slightly unfamiliar, but it can definitely hang newbies who have just started on the road.
Many of the designs in the car are full of technology, and I can see the progress of the trip in real time through the mini program. An on-board screen is placed behind the front seats for passengers to view. This screen shows real-time road conditions, and I can directly understand the current driving path of unmanned taxis, speed, surrounding vehicles and pedestrians, and so on.
After getting out of the car, I was still a little unsatisfied. I really didn't expect that the scenes depicted in science fiction dramas appeared in our lives. Personally, I very much hope that Robotaxi will be able to operate commercially on a large scale in the future. Driverless should be able to liberate a lot of manpower, wait until the day it is really popular, point-to-point reservations and services, you can avoid the suffering when waiting for taxis in the airport queue.
Robotaxi is sci-fi enough, but not as convenient as a regular taxi
Easy-| 35-year-old Internet channel manager in Beijing
The first time I heard about Robotaxi was in October last year, when I saw the Baidu Apollo self-driving car article in the circle of friends, which was quite interesting. Because I like technology products, I think about when to experience it.
In November, when I accompanied my lover to the Shougang Park near my home for a walk, I accidentally saw that there were radishes running in the park, so I knew that I could experience it at the door of my home, and I downloaded the radish fast running APP at that time.
Originally I thought this was the same as a taxi, but when I started to call a car, I found that the vehicle had to be parked at a fixed station, and the rest was similar to the online car, and after booking a ride on the APP, there was a vehicle to receive an order soon. After getting on the car, there will be a safety officer in the main driver's seat to remind you to wear a seat belt, scan the code of the health treasure, and then enter the tail number of the mobile phone, and the vehicle will drive automatically.
Image Source / Visual China
Remind the rear row to tie the details of the seat belt, I think it is very desirable and worth promoting, in fact, usually everyone sitting in the back row is generally not very active to wear the seat belt, but from the safety point of view, whether sitting in the front row or the back row, the seat belt must be fastened.
After the vehicle started, the driving was relatively smooth, and the avoidance of other vehicles on the road and pedestrians was also very timely, but the sharp braking was very frustrated, although the speed was not fast at that time. Second, I don't think it's "flexible" enough. I remember turning left at a green light, but the vehicle in the opposite lane hadn't started for three or five seconds, and the self-driving car I was riding in had been waiting at the intersection, which was quite time-consuming.
After finally arriving at the destination to end the trip, I paid more than thirty yuan in the APP. Overall, the radish run experience is OK, and it's fresh, fun, and sci-fi.
But I am not very optimistic about the development of the Robotaxi industry, now the automatic driving technology is not mature, ordinary people have not experienced may come to try once, but there are taxis and public transportation, I think there will be very few people to choose Robotaxi, after all, the price is still quite expensive, and Robotaxi can only drive in fixed locations and routes, and it is not popular enough. As for the large-scale promotion of autonomous driving, I don't know when it will be, and I don't see any advantages in it anyway.
I've experienced the Radish Run once, and I've heard that there are other brands of self-driving cars in Beijing, but I don't plan to try it again.
If you choose between ordinary taxis and Robotaxi, I am definitely more willing to use taxis for daily travel, take Robotaxi out of a car accident, claims are a big trouble, should I find a safety officer or an operator? There seems to be no such case in China. And it is too restrictive to get on and off at fixed stations, and it is much more convenient to choose a taxi.
However, if I had the opportunity, I would still try it out to my friend Amway, after all, self-driving is a scene that only appeared in science fiction in the first place.
Cheap enough to use Robotaxi
Yang Jian | 28 years old, Beijing software engineer
I was robotaxi, who I knew at the end of December last year, when I saw my colleagues send a circle of friends to share that they had experienced the self-driving car of Pony Zhixing, and colleagues in the office also talked about this topic after brushing it, at this time I learned that the original pony Zhixing running on Yizhuang Road can already be called with app.
At that time, the first impression of Robotaxi was cheap and did not cost money, colleagues said that his trip was more than three kilometers, the APP showed that it was more than twenty yuan, but the final checkout will automatically be discounted, the actual payment of 0 yuan.
Because the company was in Yizhuang, I downloaded PonyPilot+ from Xiaoma Zhixing at that time, and I also went to experience it the next day. I feel that Robotaxi is a bit like a combination of Didi and the bus, similar to Didi when calling, but there are only a few fixed stops to choose from, just like the bus, you have to walk to the station to wait for the car or get off.
After selecting the starting and ending points on my phone, I called the car in less than a minute, and the app showed that I had to wait about 3 minutes to get on the bus. The next step was almost like the usual taxi, the car slowly drove to the side of the road to stop, and then I pulled the car door and sat in the back seat. The safety officer first reminds me to scan the code and wear a seat belt, and then I enter the tail number of my mobile phone on the display, and then click on the start of the trip, and the vehicle will start.
In fact, I often encounter Baidu Apollo and Xiaoma Zhixing's cars on the road in Yizhuang, and I have surpassed these self-driving cars when driving before, they are quite fast and can brake the car in time, and there are safety officers on these cars, so I personally trust automatic driving.
The first experience was nothing special, after the vehicle started driving, I noticed that the safety officer always had his hands on both sides of the steering wheel, but did not touch the steering wheel, just ready to take over. There are not too many cars on Yizhuang Road, plus it is a weekday, the road conditions are relatively simple, and the safety officer has not taken over along the way.
Vehicles in the identification of traffic lights, parallel lines, turns are relatively smooth, the maximum speed of 60 kilometers per hour, but do not know whether it is for safety or system settings, I think the vehicle in the parallel, turn are "slow", more cautious, but the overall sense of experience and human driving is not much different. At the end of the trip, the price jumped out on the APP, of course, it was automatically discounted, and no money was paid.
I think self-driving cars are the general trend of future technology development, but the current positioning is still more awkward, saying that it is convenient, it can not be called everywhere like a ride-hailing car, but it is faster than the bus, if it is located at the station can also call this.
Source / Courtesy of the interviewee The second ride on the pony Zhixing
I've called for the car three times, but once it was probably because it was too late and I didn't call, and the other time was recently, and the two rides were not much different.
If I had been free or charged very low, I would have preferred to take this car and pay my friend Amway, but if the price was the same as a regular taxi, I probably wouldn't have chosen this car, after all, the Robotaxi site is limited and ordinary taxis are not restricted.
*The caption is from @PonyAI Pony Zhixing. At the request of the interviewees, Zhao Deng, Jin Cicada Boy, Yi Zi and Yang Jian of the fishing village were pseudonyms.