Why is the commercialization of autonomous driving technology taking taxis as the first entry point?
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “ Alter chat IT ” (ID: spnews) by Alter.
Most people use cars less than 5% a day, but the annual cost of use is tens of thousands. The high cost and limited capacity are enough to give autopilots a huge incentive to overturn the existing car use mode .
After the trial operation of Baidu’s self-driving taxis in Changsha, Guangzhou also launched the trial operation service of RoboTaxi. If Didi plans to launch an autonomous taxi in Shanghai at the end of the year, it may be in three cities in 2019. See self-driving taxis.
Although most people use the term “trial operation” when referring to self-driving taxis, almost all self-driving taxis operating on the ground are equipped with a safety officer in the main driving position. However, there are also some positive practical significances. Autonomous driving, which was originally only tested in closed places, gives the public the possibility of close touch.
More aggressively, Google’s self-driving company Waymo sent an email to users in October stating that the user may no longer be equipped with a human security officer the next time they ride. If the message works, it will undoubtedly be a new milestone for autonomous taxis.
Whether it is the “conservative operation” of domestic autonomous driving, or Google’s “admirable people”, players of all sizes in the autonomous driving field are already aiming at the taxi market.
Small cut and big cake
The first question that needs to be answered is: Why is the commercialization of autonomous driving technology landing taxis as the preferred entry point?
The first answer may be the need for market education.
Roland Berger, a strategic management consulting firm, made a bold prediction in the fifth issue of “Disruptive Data Exploration for the Automotive Industry”: fully autonomous taxis will account for more than one-third of global car trips by 2030 market. Another analyst firm, UBS, also has an optimistic forecast, publicly saying that “the global autonomous taxi market may be worth more than $ 2 trillion annually in 2030.”
