China's Drivers Fear Job Loss as Robotaxis Take Over City Streets

As robotaxis become a common sight in Chinese cities, drivers fear job loss due to the rapid expansion of self-driving technology.

Ride-Hailing Drivers Face Job Loss From AI Advancements

As thousands of robotaxis flood China's streets, economists and industry experts predict that ride-hailing and taxi drivers will be among the first people worldwide to confront the prospect of job loss due to artificial intelligence.

According to Reuters, in contrast to the United States, which is swift to initiate investigations and halt approvals following accidents, China has moved swiftly to authorize trials of self-driving technology, although this technology is still in its early stages.

Robotaxi Trials Expand to 19 Cities in China

Disclosure revealed that at least 19 cities in China are conducting experiments of robotaxi and robobus. At least five prominent companies in the industry—Apollo Go, Pony.ai, WeRide, AutoX, and SAIC Motor—have authorized testing without human-driver monitors.

By the end of the year, Apollo Go aims to have 1,000 deployments in Wuhan, and by 2030, the company aims to have operations in 100 cities.

With support from Toyota Motor of Japan, Pony.ai is running 300 robotaxis and intends to add 1,000 more by the year 2026. The company's VP has predicted that robotaxis will grow "exponentially" after five years of operation, when it will achieve sustainable profitability.

Automated cabs, shuttles, buses, and street cleaners are what make WeRide famous. Beijing and Shanghai are among the places where AutoX operates, thanks to the support of Alibaba Group, the leading e-commerce company. Robotaxis has been run by SAIC since the year 2021 came to a close.

"We've seen an acceleration in China. There's certainly now a rapid pace of permits being issued," commented Augustin Wegscheider, managing director of Boston Consulting Group. "The U.S. has been a lot more gradual."

Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, is the sole American company currently running fare-collecting unmanned robotaxis. A source close to the company stated that it currently has more than 1,000 vehicles across the three cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, but that number might increase to "thousands" later on.

Following last year's incident involving one of its vehicles colliding with a pedestrian, General Motors-backed Cruise resumed testing in April.

Economists Concerned About Negative Side Effects

Official statistics showed that there are now 7 million registered ride-hailing drivers in China, up from 4.4 million two years ago. Due to the fact that ride-hailing services are offering jobs as a last resort during the economic downturn, economists are concerned that the government may decide to slow down on robotaxis due to its negative side effects.

With hashtags like "Are driverless cars stealing taxi drivers' livelihoods?" and others, talk of robotaxis-related job losses dominated July's social media searches, MSN reports.

One ride-hailing driver in Wuhan, Liu Yi, 36, goes by the nickname "stupid radishes" (a pun on the name of the brand in local dialect), and claims that Apollo Go vehicles are to blame for the city's traffic problems.

Additionally, Liu is concerned about Tesla's robotaxi plans and the upcoming launch of its "Full Self-Driving" system, which still needs human drivers.

"I'm afraid that after the radishes come," he pointed out, "Tesla will come."

A 63-year-old driver from Wuhan, Wang Guoqiang, sees a danger to employees who are already struggling to make ends meet.

The man remarked, "Ride-hailing is work for the lowest class," as he observed an Apollo Go vehicle park in front of his taxi. "If you kill off this industry, what is left for them to do?"