Alibaba-backed autonomous vehicle firm AutoX has now operated a driverless taxi service for 100 consecutive days.
The service has been operating without a safety driver on the roads of Shenzhen, the most population-dense city in China.
Professor Jianxiong Xiao, Founder and CEO of AutoX, said:
“The first 100 days have been a huge step forward for us and for the entire industry in China.
We have learned so much from the feedback from our passengers about how to continuously improve our service to make the driverless journeys a fantastic experience.”
AutoX claims the robotaxi service has been well-received from both officials and local residents.
“Our interactions with AutoX operations have been very positive. And this service also provides a great example for us to further polish the legislative framework for fully self-driving cars,” said a Shenzhen official.
Shenzhen is often considered the Silicon Valley of China and is the first city in the country to pass legislation to permit Level 4 self-driving cars.
To celebrate its historic milestone, AutoX released a sped-up video featuring two hours of footage of its robotaxi navigating the roads of Shenzhen autonomously. The impressive video shows the vehicle safely overtaking illegally parked cars and large trucks, handling sudden cut-ins by other drivers, changing lanes, and avoiding motorcycles.
Unlike most other competitors, AutoX’s vehicles operate at full speed and without any backup safety driver. The current fleet will soon be upgraded with AutoX Gen 5 – the latest setup which features six high-resolution lidars and eight high-resolution 4D imaging radars.
(Image Credit: AutoX)
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