NIKKEI Film: The power of fully driverless taxis in China

China leads the world in self-driving technology, arousing interest in whether its technology is authentic. A Nikkei reporter took a ride in a commercially operated, completely driverless taxi in Beijing, noting the details of its ride quality and safety.
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[@joeyp1927]

I like Japanese documentaries about China. Even, fact-based, thorough. Same for many German documentaries about China. Now, if this was American, half of the time they'd be talking about how the technology was stolen if it works and how the Chinese can't 'innovate' if it doesn't work, that it's viable only because the CCP supports it, and then they'd be interviewing US Senators about how we need more sanctions for unrelated technology because everything has to be about how the Chinese are up to no good even when it's about their stuff in China and not about the US.

[@augustusomega4708]

yes both vassals seem quite impetuous, no doubt the boss will work to rectify such chaos

[@arminius6506]

German DW produces CIA dirt

[@NorCalMoDo]

Factual, thorough, and insightful, until you watch the documentaries from DW English international programs....

[@rayclm]

And the title of this documentary will be something like 'The power of fully driverless taxis in China, but at what cost.'

[@valyshknee4203]

yeah most of the sanction bullsh is pushed by some old farts in government who are still stuck in the cold war with the "hurr durrr communist evil, communists eat babies hurr hurr"

[@alileevil]

If Japan wants to prosper, it should get its head out of America's behind and ensure its self interests before America's interest.

[@avengercn7232]

殖民地不配说拥有主权。

[@umu-i-d2785]

That ain't gonna happen. Look at where the Philippines is heading.

[@user-ll8ni9uh3d]

@@avengercn7232 le monde change vivre les brics+ fini le dollar de singe et les sanction de la mafia us

[@unreliablenarrator6649]

Nikkei can never resist inserting a clip of the Chinese People's Congress to add an element of fear for foreign audiences (would they show the US Congress in a video about Tesla FSD?) but I think the scenes of China and the fact the taxi works speaks for itself in terms of the development that is happening, and the remainder of the video is on-topic and fair. Edit: correct my poor English!

[@Neftegna]

Japanese learned it from their American masters

[@anthonyfernandez7833]

@@Neftegna wumaos and their insecurity rofl. poor kids.

[@kaiserxblue]

@@anthonyfernandez7833 But it's true, it's about he principle whgy the nees to show the CCP government fora documentary on technology....do you see what's wrong with that?

[@anthonyfernandez7833]

@@kaiserxblue considering one of the elements that stopping robotaxis from being adopted is regulation. I think its important to show the Chinese government perspective on this. Hence my comments on the insecurity.

[@kaiserxblue]

@@anthonyfernandez7833 that's BS and you know it! This is technology being implemented and yes is still new considering this hasn't gone full yet. regulation will happen eventually but what pisses me off is the predjuice that because it's made by CHina then is bad and its there to remind us that China has teh CCP even on a technology documentary.

[@Neftegna]

I remember watching a German car show around 2003/2004, the Chinese at that time were photographing and inspecting every detail of German cars. Look at China now... unstoppable!

[@SimonFranck100]

Even the Japanese do that. It's the usual way of any innovator

[@cnhugovideo]

Huawei's autopilot is even way better than Baidu and even Tesla.

[@mynameisChizzle]

East and West cultural differences can be seen clearly here. Thank you

[@SimonFranck100]

And then you have India--neither East nor West, the worst of both

[@zeiss9]

China is taking concrete actions to promote the industries of self-driving vehicles and robotics as a countermeasure against the impacts of an aging population with low birth rates.

[@mchammer3927]

Is that why we have self driving vehicles in San Francisco

[@calvinh2155]

He didnt say that other countries arent also adopting driverless vehicles. I dont see what your comment has to do with anything. ​@@mchammer3927

[@YCHTT]

That has nothing to do with it LOL... even with your so called "aging population or low birth rates," China still has many times of population that almost all countries. So try again with other idiotic western talking points. Just like the steam engine & the 1st industrial revolution, such change has revolutionized societies & civilization. China acknowledge the 4th industrial revolution is inevitable & embracing it as a nation. This should be a win win for all mankind but the US led West is being sour grapes trying to hold on its imperialist empire and trying all they can to stop the Chinese from progressing and developing. They won't stop China and only going to undermining human progress in a global scale. This century is certainly a Chinese century whether those China haters like it or not.

[@CattleFarmer667]

​@@mchammer3927 I heard US self driving is unreliable

[@alereon]

What is Japan doing?

[@passby8070]

I am surprised that Japan didn't have a on par driveless development similar China's. The Honda vehicles quite behind and rudimentary.

[@sleefy2343]

Because Japan is controlled by USA now So basically they can no longer develop the same as before

[@Zergcerebrates]

Japan is still using fax machines in the corporate world and still doesn’t have facial or palm payment options. It says a lot about progress and technology implementation

[@liamporter1137]

China smart car and City 👏👍

[@timmaynard797]

BuT aT wHaT CoSt 😂😂

[@stalin1489]

every non Chinese specially western media does that. they will be reporting normal for few minutes and those goes to that line "but at what cost"

[@Herr.Mitternacht]

No homeless, no crime, no massive hordes of thieves, no mass shootings, no gun violence, should I continue?

[@mavakhayank29]

American typical comment

[@SimonFranck100]

At the cost of the historically dominant car manufacturers from US + EU + Japan + Korea.

[@SimonFranck100]

@@Herr.Mitternacht "No homeless"?

[@challenger516]

It stopped "a little too far" because it tried to move away from the garbage bins on the sidewalk.

[@edzehoo]

Yeah it's got a bit of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with cleanliness...

[@challenger516]

@@edzehoo cringe

[@lee1039]

I grew up in the '70s and '80s and would never have expected the day when the japanese reports on the technological advancement in China.

[@ex0duzz]

Honda plans to have them on the roads and to be used practically by 2030? China already has them operating years ago and for real world use as this video showed.. with real payment and destinations, and also driving on real roads with other cars and bikes and people. Japan/Honda's one looks primitive in comparison.. both the technology and the design of the vehicle. It's looks like a bigger golf cart. What is the point? Why not use a normal good looking sedan car? Unless that's what normal cars or taxis in Japan look like these days, since I do remember hearing about some really small and cheap car being popular in Japan now. And like the video said, it's not just about whether you have the technology but also about social acceptance. Both from society and customers, and also from the government with industrial policy and support. China has both, while I think Japan is lacking in social support and much more conservative. They are still using fax machines and stamps etc. also their car companies are traditional ICE focused, while Chinese ones are all fully focused on electric and transitioning to a networked 5g AI society of the future. By the time Honda has the technology ready in 2030, china would already have all the infrastructure built and driverless taxis being the norm, and China would be introducing flying cars/taxis. Ehang just got certification from the government and probably have better AI today than Honda does for cars. China also will probably have a moon base by 2030, or at least that was the plan(2027 I believe they plan to start building). But it will probably take few years longer, since you can't rush these things and much research and work needs to be done before other things like production can begin. Like mapping the moon and choosing the initial site to build the base, and then working out the technologies required to achieve it. China also has the economy and labor/market size needed and has full domestic supply chain of all required technologies to do pull off such major national projects and the whole country is united and behind them. Just see how far china has developed in the last decade since 2013 and you can imagine where China will be in 2033. It will probably develop even faster from now on since it has achieved technology independence with all critical technologies and no longer needs to import things like jet engines or semiconductor chips from countries with limited supply(like Russia for engines), or countries which have a vested interest in slowing down, containing, or even destroying China's growth and development(like usa). Go China! And I hope Japan can also work with China and embrace her roots as an Asian country again. I have confidence this will happen after China becomes the most advanced and developed, powerful/rich country in the world again as Japan historically has always sided with the more advanced countries/civilizations. First China, then Europe, then USA etc. Soon it will go back to China again which is the historical norm. It will take 1-2 decades probably. 3 decades max. I also hope USA can also do the same thing and stop causing trouble and starting wars just because it can't compete with China and can't handle being second place, or even being first place but no longer having undisputed military/economic/technological hegemony and global dominance.

[@starbeach2001]

Amazing

[@godzillamothra5983]

meanwhile my human grab driver often miss my location when trying to pick me, how can this driverless taxi not miss the location is amazing. I'm just curious, did it also honk other cars? and once this tech mature, I think they should just design totally new driverless cars without steering and more comfortable seating arrangement

[@user-yt7dq2kl2t]

China‘s Beidou navigation system is more accurate than GPS, which helps a lot with the problem you are experiencing

[@nickl5658]

The chinese beidou system is more accurate than GPS. It has more satellites, its atomic clocks are more accurate and within China it has more ground stations for better accuracy.. So the accuracy of GPS is about 5m while Beidu is under 1m. and can be accurate to 10cm in some parts of china.

[@rexporube6778]

Sad thing is all these self everything will kill so many jobs there will b no money for us to afford a ride Self driving cars kill jobs for uber,lyft,taxis drivers Self driving semi will kill the semi jobs Robots will kill warehouse jobs Self automated arms in the fast food industry will kill those jobs what are us the human going to do for work AI will tech jobs next really cool stuff but at end we shall have like 100,000 people fighting for 1 job mark my works

[@grgarjun376]

Its a shame that japan a country that was a world leader has lagged beyond china in most cases.

[@udaykumar4u]

Chinese self driving tech seems far advanced than Japan's. The latter is slower than a golf cart, more like a high school project!

[@proctorsaint4671]

May I know what wearable device worn on the wrist of Nikkei staff writer?

[@francofrancis7439]

What is the energy consumption?

[@mistman5640]

I got yellow fever watching this. Voice over so cute

[@limjan1667]

I’m looking forward to this technology; if this is the way forward, I believe that it’ll be better than human driven vehicles; as sometimes one need to deal with some oversized human emotions; lol 😅.

[@jcy089]

0:43 I like how Japanese media is marking Taiwan in the same color as China 😌 Very correct 👍

[@user-ky8fg9ql3w]

Nobody would show that in Germany. It is a great example for FSD in china. Tesla also takes Baidu as an Chinese partner for FSD. The documentary shows why. Greetings from Germany to Japan

[@thesecondaccound]

Sweet. That reporter girl is really cute.

[@ButchCassidyAndSundanceKid]

She's old, must be in her early 50's. I take it you fancy older women.

[@tonywyli]

Seriously?

[@kingcolz]

Old fart

[@emmastone2192]

​@@tonywyli When she entered into the car, she uttered that "yee xu" sound, which is really cute😂

[@bunnyfreakz]

Driverless car still in trial. It not exist everywhere, just some selected Tier 2 city. They needs to consider so many things to minimalize /avoid accidents.

[@soowo5942]

Beijing, guangzhou and Shenzhen aren't 2nd tier cities.

[@bluffdotcom5504]

Let’s think back about America in the 60’s & 70’s and Japan in the 80’s and 90’s. Are you sure America and Japan gonna be the world leader in technology for the next decade or century?

[@seppeseppe-jq7nr]

watch out europa , europe is like 3. world country 😂

[@rbcrbc7913]

There is literally no traffic.

[@portcybertryx222]

Baidu is still way behind Waymo, cruise and Tesla in FSD implementation but the more they test the better they will get. Good luck! Safety is a human right and the safer the streets are the better it is for all of humanity

[@archstanton5973]

In USA driverless taxis are hated and banning them is being strongly pushed by people. Let's see what happens in China.

[@TAL142]

US people would trash anything, driverless and with drivers.

[@heavenbright2342]

It is hated in US because there is no driver for the American citizen to torment.

[@Ludak021]

that's because Elon is still trying to buy an AI that can make this happen. Grok won't be it. There are 3rd party AI providers that you can plug in your car, doesn't need to be an EV, just modern (because of electronic control of pedals and steering) and it does this safely. They also don't want to sell to Elon.

[@nickl5658]

@@nmew6926 Yeah. Car jacking happening in American alot... like in the movies.

[@YandereDevSings]

Well Chinese people aren’t allowed to have opinions on these kinds of things. I agree that the opposition in the us is stupid though

[@user-xxbb047]

日本人拍纪录片的水平很高

[@UtjieSugiarto-pw5rb]

Ketika orang Jepang ke China naik taxi.

[@usa-racistwarmachine3631]

@14:23 typical westerner action.

[@joelo2959]

Excellent! Very good and informative. However, I am not sure whether China really leads the world in autonomous driving. Driverless taxis services have also been provided in some US cities for a number of years. Hope Nikkei can explore about it too.

[@stephanieellison7834]

We'll have to see if China intends to do the following: AI and its Impact on Society Oct 31, 2023, updated on April 11, 2024 We must ask ourselves, "What will happen when AI has taken 85% of jobs present in 2020? What will we do? How will we eat and survive without incomes from jobs or other means?" What is disturbing is that while AI is taking these jobs, the gov't and the corporations have not done ANYTHING to prepare us for an AI'ed civilization. They have not said anything about major retraining of an entire economy to something else, and they have not followed up on a discussion of universal basic income. This is supposedly supported by a lack of information in the latest government budgets submitted and approved as reported by some KZbin videos. It appears that the US gov't and the corporations intend to kill off the majority of Americans passively, through starvation from lack of income to buy food. (check and see if farming production is declining or will start to decline ahead of the "starvation phase") (also check to see if the "makeup" of robot equipment allocation would change to reflect a trend away from retail and services for the masses, possibly indicating an extinction of the American public - this means taking a robot from Chipotle and repurposing it for some other job not related to the public, or scrapping affected robots to be remade for some other purpose that has nothing to do with the public) It appears that the decline of farming has already started with the state of Maine buying farm land under the pretext that there are "forever chemicals" present at around 20 parts per TRILLION (safe level is said to be only 4 parts per TRILLION), which does not make sense, BUT this would rope in a LOT of land across the US. Other states may follow suit in addition to the ten states that have similar laws in place. This way, there are only enough people alive to get some things done, and the rest is done by AI, and the survivors who planned this can claim the whole country for themselves. Imagine having an estate mansion half the size of a mall on several dozen thousand acres of land, and robots would be used to maintain and clean the estates and do the farming FOR THE ESTATE OWNERS. The White Man's wet dream of civilization. What will the Native Americans south of the US border do when they see this coming, especially when they can buy firearms legally now? Hopi prophecy...

[@umu-i-d2785]

Chinese products still have a reputation for being cheap and unreliable. Once that stigma is taken away, there is no stopping them. And at the rate things are going right now, it won't take decades before that happens. I'm forever impressed with how the Chinese people work and how they innovate on so many cutting edge fronts. I wish our government would stop meddling in everyone else's business and pay attention to what we need right here.

[@jeprotable]

Planet #china 🇨🇳

[@Wallace956]

Honda should buy Fsd from Tesla . And buy car software also from Tesla.

[@mooreshady]

To be honest I am against robot AI of these sorts. It’s making unemployment unnecessary.

[@vegamoonlight]

Did the Imperial Japan already send apologies to their atrocities committed in China and to the Chinese?

[@panama-canada]

2:04 take note that it’s all pre planned - all destinations are predetermined.

[@df23]

Well yea thats generally how demos go? they take you from one side to another side of your showroom. Im sure you can find longer travel ones from different reporters

[@turtlesoup8134]

nope, those are not predetermined destination. Go to China and find out for yourself instead of saying things that you don't understand or have never used.

[@umu-i-d2785]

That's usually how taking a taxi works.

[@artus198]

I think japan has lagged behind in software and BEVs !

[@SmallShark]

US is still leading in most industries tech wise, but few things can actually be done. for example the Baltimore bridge rebuild. US has everything needed, or can purchase anything needed to rebuild that bridge, but it will take 10 years. originally, that bridge was built in 5 years in 1970. this is why US is losing.

[@bunnyfreakz]

If US government reallocates Defense budget to build something that useful.

[@YandereDevSings]

You make some valid points but the us isn’t even close to “losing”.. losing what?

[@passby8070]

Not really, China leads 37 of 45 core technologies done by a pro west think tank in Australia.

[@Jdvc-yd5tx]

This has been up for 4 days and I'm the 4th person to post a comment. My bad.😂

[@thomasanderson9539]

KZbin doing its job making the majority dumb and unaware of what’s going on in the world.

[@indian3021]

Why beijing is so empty

[@user-vw7fz3eq1b]

Obviously it is in rural area.

[@user-fx7pk5uc3y]

Love those 1994 reporter dress. So fresh and wild lady.

[@binhe6500]

I enjoy talking to a real person taxi driver :)

[@redhongkong]

hat will start with $10 USD + $0.2 each km

[@ssuwandi3240]

Poverty across Democrat cities

[@kwokholuk8723]

It's illegal to do that.

[@Doggiedogedog]

This news channel good or bias? Cus I just saw this on my feed

[@YandereDevSings]

Idk but the comments are filled with totally legitimate xi jinping fanboys dropping some hard propaganda

[@emofanz]

ini gak akan bisa diterapkan di jakarta yg ruwet banyak motor dan kaki lima, belum lg angkot2 yg brenti sembarangan dan parkir2 liar 😅😅

[@eddyr1041]

Bisa... harusvkihat waymo..😊

[@Justmyopinionlol]

If you are wanted by the Chinese government, I wonder how this works. Would the taxi drive you straight to the police station lol

[@vidsurf88]

Japan benefit greatly with this tech...

[@Ludak021]

This is in China.

[@ly8370]

Can't you read the video title? 😂

[@nahlene1973]

i think the op meant that given how the Japanese society is aging so…

[@indian3021]

When new sanctions are coming 😂

[@indian3021]

So china lower income jobs will be end soon they wanted to be next west europe but in technologically more advanced situation, at the end of century there population will be half, with high tech, high income, we are making new america crazy

[@hongzhu4872]

为那个中国地图点赞

[@yashkumar3196]

It doesn't contain indian and Japanese territories only taiwan

[@ranwu1168]

日本的拍摄手段从始而终都是滤镜，祖传的牛逼😂

[@shungan1009]

倭苟把新闻学当做国家战略，几十年如一日，从国内到国外，立人设，搞阴阳，面具戴久了，这个忍性深得勾践真传，为苟主人默哀。有点期待霓虹摊牌那天了，注定要载入史册的。

[@JorgeOrpinel]

You went (pretty slowly) like a mile away over mostly empty streets. What a waste, just use a bicycle LOL. Self-driving cars are absurd.

[@umu-i-d2785]

There was a time when horses were faster than cars

[@WANDERER0070]

Works good in perfect weather,however in rain or snow might be problem 😊

[@Black_Sun_Dark_Star]

You have a good point. Also noticed how little on-road construction there is? I wonder if that will create trouble?

[@ly8370]

It has been in service for over a year and experienced 4 seasons without issues. 😂

[@HotPromptHub]

That depends on what technologies are used, in Tesla autopilot, yes you will have serious problem when weather is less ideal because it relies on image/video recognition, but for Huawei, it has no problem because Huawei self-driving technologies rely on lidar and real-time 3D modeling of the road and environment. It is almost Level 4.

[@Black_Sun_Dark_Star]

@@HotPromptHub I thought Tesla was experimenting with lidar as well?

[@Black_Sun_Dark_Star]

@@ly8370 interesting indeed

[@back2basics597]

Only Tesla's FSD is truly full self driving. That said China is doing a spectacular job.

[@HotPromptHub]

Huawei's self-driving technologies built upon Lidar and 3D mapping is the world best, fully Level 4. Tesla does not come close.

[@LaowaiDaveJCP]

Tesla is a company. China is a country that also has hundreds of companies. The comparison do not make any sense..ask why if you still don't get it

[@DaddyBear205]

You know nothing about tech

[@johnsullivan8673]

I had to intervene on Tesla's FSD. Curb rashes is also quite common on Teslas.

[@HotPromptHub]

@@johnsullivan8673 Because Tesla FSD is not Level 4 yet.

[@Peter-ox8lj]

nikkei asia is controlled by ccp now

[@ABritishRefugeeinChina]

What a dumb comment.

[@vegamoonlight]

Butthurt that $atan is not able to control it? Don't worry, their executives are still $atan's minions like you want it.

[@user-px2qp9no2i]

你日本爹现在都能被中共控制了，你不让井底那帮人去抗议你们的赖大神？

[@RSCB]

these 'merica bots are controlled by the 'mericans again