High tech

Driverless taxis自动驾驶出租车

China has the largest robotaxi deployment in the world and it is a public service, not a demo. Baidu's Apollo Go runs a fleet in Wuhan that has completed millions of paid rides; Pony.ai and WeRide operate in parts of Guangzhou, Beijing and Shenzhen. You hail one in an app, it arrives with nobody in it, you enter a code to unlock the door, and a screen in the back shows you the car's own model of the world — every pedestrian, cyclist and vehicle it can see, rendered live. Coverage is zoned rather than citywide and the rules change, so it is worth checking on the day, but when it works it is the most quietly astonishing fifteen minutes of a China trip.