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Say Goodbye To Your Cab Driver–RoboTaxi is Just About Here.

by David Parmer / Tokyo

Pretty soon chatting with a friendly and knowledgeable taxi driver may be a thing of the past. No, he’s not gone yet, but it is only a matter of time before you may see him in cook’s whites stir frying your favorite dish at a local restaurant. This will be thanks to the rise of the robotaxi or autonomous vehicle–a vehicle that has no need for a human driver. And they are coming. No, that’s not quite true: they are here already.

Many of us can remember the introduction of the first mobile telephones. Some people had them and they were a novelty. Then more and more people got them, and then, like magic, they were everywhere.

This same pattern is now being played out with the driverless vehicles or robotaxi. And while there are many self-driving car companies in the US, China is really the epicenter of the action and excitement in the application of this new technology. Several companies are partnering to move this technology forward and see its seamless introduction into society. These include:

WeRide– Now operating Guangzhou next to Hong Kong, the company is operating its driverless vehicles with a safety driver. They are using Alibaba’s Autonavi application. We Ride has gotten an $18million investment from Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi in 2018. In July 2020 the company got the first license for driverless vehicles in China.
AutoX–Partnering with Alibaba and Fiat-Chrysler, AutoX is Fiat Chrysler’s “in” to the Chinese market. In spring 2020 a test of AutoX vehicles was run in Shanghai’s Jading area with the target of introducing an eventual 100 test vehicles. Customers can book a ride on AutoX by using the AutoNavi application from Alibaba.
Apollo Robotaxi–Partnered with China’s search giant, Baidu, Apollo started triala in Changsha, Hunan Province in April 2020 using its own DUTAXI app. Besides Baidu, partners include SIAC Motors, Geely, Alibaba and Tencent.
DiDi Chuxing–China’s major ride-hailing company has started testing in Shanghai’s Jading region with Level 4 cars with safety drivers as required by Chinese law. Their target is 1 million self-driving vehicles by 2030.

Pony.ai–Founded in 2016 in California, Pony.ai started China testing of its vehicles in 2018 in Guangzhou. In 2019 they partnered with Hyundai and GAC. They also received a whopping $400 million investment from Japan’s Toyota Motors.

In the not-too-distant future China may lead the world in the area of autonomous vehicles. Certainly it is off to a good start. When driverless vehicles have moved to the total autonomy of Level 5, (no safety driver), then the next logical step will be driverless private vehicles for those who can afford them.

So the next time you take a taxi, enjoy your conversation with the driver–there is a good chance you will not be seeing him again in the near future.

Photo: International Labor Organization via flickr

China Mobile Payments: Apple + Union Pay = Convenience and Security

by David Parmer

Mobile and contactless payments for Apple users in China just got a lot simpler thanks to a 2016 agreement between Apple Pay and Union Pay. Now these Apples users can add Union Pay cards to their Apple Pay on iPhones, iWatch and iPad. The keywords are secure and convenient. In combination, Apple Pay and Union Pay’s Quick Pass provide payment tokenization for secure transactions. Contactless readers add convenience by letting the user simply put the Apple device near the reader or click the iWatch to make the transaction. Union Pay operates the country’s clearing and settlement system and issues cards. Union Card has issued 5 billion cards to date and the card is accepted in more than 150 countries.

While the tie-up is excellent news for Apple, it does not have an exclusive in the China market. Union Pay recently announced that it had also made a tie-up with Samsung for mobile payments. Some observers say Apple has nothing to worry about since Samsung seems to be in decline in the China market.

Apple does have to worry about local big-boy Alibaba, whose Alipay service now holds a huge chunk of the mobile payments market. Local player Tencent is also in the game through its We Chat app.

This year might be a very big year for Apple in China. It will be interesting to see, in say 12 months, how the mobile payments pie is sliced up.

Photo: Shanghai Apple Store, DP.

China’s Innovaters—Names You Had Better Get To Know

Li Jun Introduces new Xiaomi phone

by David Parmer

Can China innovate? Will China innovate? Does China innovate? It seems that some critics would rather make up their own answers to these questions than take a look at the evidence on the ground.They blame the government, the school system and the government industries for China’s inability to innovate. Rote learning and government interference are the big problems holding China back they say. What?

The evidence for Chinese innovation is clearly quite to the contrary of what critics are putting out. Current Chinese history is a story of constant and ongoing innovation. Chinese innovation can be seen in areas such as:

Telecommunications
Mobile technology
Online services
Biotechnology
Medical devices

The current period in China’s development is seen as a movement from imitation to innovation, from producer to designer. It is clear that this transition is not only ongoing but has massive government and industry support. Forbes magazine states that there are no less than 1500 R&D centers set up in China by foreign companies alone, not to mention Chinese institutions. Locally there are an estimated 700 hi-tech incubators, and China’s universities turn out 700,000 engineering graduates annually. The amount of R&D facilities around the city of Hangzhou alone is staggering. Some estimates give a figure of 2% of GDP for the R&D budget nationally.

Recently US Vice President Joe Biden challenged a university graduating class to name one innovative product from China. A very interesting reply came from CNN Money (see below) that named four Chinese organizations that might answer his question:

Xiaomi-mobile device maker
Tencent-messaging service
Huawei-telecom equipment maker
B.G.I- Biotech leader

Much of China’s innovation is directed internally, but Xiaomi and Tencent (We Chat) and Lenovo have already made their presence known in the world market.

In the history of science we have the famous question posed by British scientist Dr. Joseph Needham: Why did China, the birthplace of so many ancient technologies that pre-dated their western counterparts, lose its technological will and edge to Europe and the west? Now the focus for the 21st century and beyond should be: What innovations can we expect from the people who gave us gunpowder, printing and the magnetic compass?

Photo: Androidheadlines.com

CNN Money: http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/29/technology/innovation/biden-china-innovation/

China-Hotbed of Innovation: http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2013/01/09/china-hotbed-of-innovation-for-our-planet-in-the-21st-century/