what is it like for international students to hail a self-driving taxi in nansha, guangzhou?
2024-09-24
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driverless taxis travel freely on the road, driverless trucks transport materials into factories... these driverless scenes that could only be seen in science fiction movies in the past are now appearing in people's daily lives.
recently, at the invitation of the yangcheng evening news' international communication project "i see china", doki, a serbian student studying at guangdong university of foreign studies, served as a "china explorer" and followed the reporter to the pony.ai guangzhou operations center in nansha district, guangzhou, to experience the real version of the science fiction scene of driverless driving.
immersed in the experience of “unmanned” travel, and being “amazed” by china’s smart manufacturing!
with the rapid development of artificial intelligence, machine vision, positioning and navigation technologies, the intelligent technology of automobiles is becoming more and more mature, and the era of autonomous driving is coming. today, guangzhou has gathered leading autonomous driving solution companies such as pony.ai, weride, and baidu apollo. this time, doki experienced the pony.ai driverless taxi operating in nansha district, guangzhou.
arriving at the operation center, what caught my eye was the neatly arranged driverless vehicles, which, like emotionally stable drivers, drove out of the parking lot one by one to greet passengers. "futuristic driverless trucks and taxis can be seen everywhere here!" doki said in surprise.
approaching the driverless taxi, doki immediately noticed that its roof and body were covered with sensors, which made the driverless taxi stand out.
li kang, an engineer at pony.ai, noticed doki’s curiosity and explained to her: “these sensors include various types such as lidar and cameras, which provide different information inputs for the vehicle to ensure safe driving.”
how can you get a driverless taxi in nansha? li kang then demonstrated how to make an appointment through a mobile app. as it happened, there was a driverless taxi station nearby, so li kang invited doki to experience this new way of travel.
after entering the driverless taxi, doki was amazed by the spacious interior and comfortable temperature. she looked at the driver's seat from time to time, and the steering wheel was turning automatically. doki said with emotion: "this is perfect for people who like to be alone! in this space that belongs to me, i can listen to music, play games, and take selfies at will, as if i have my own little world."
the virtual driving route on the display screen inside the car also aroused her interest. "i can actually see a 360-degree simulation of the surrounding environment on the display screen," said doki.
when a car suddenly cuts into the lane during driving, the vehicle's automatic driving system quickly honks to warn the driver. li kang explained: "one of the original intentions of designing the in-car screen is to let passengers understand the vehicle's 'field of view' and know the surrounding obstacles to increase their sense of security."
"it's so smart, it's like walking into a science fiction movie!" after experiencing the driverless taxi for the first time, doki exclaimed: "i not only felt the power of china's driverless technology, but also experienced the safety and comfort of modern travel!"
doki told reporters that in serbia, people rarely use taxis to travel. there is no convenient taxi-hailing app like in china, let alone driverless taxis. this experience was also her first time to see and ride a driverless car.
"two-way travel" with nansha: technology empowers urban vitality
in recent years, pony.ai’s driverless cars have been running all over the streets and alleys of nansha, becoming a beautiful landscape in nansha.
pony.ai was founded in late 2016 and established its china headquarters in nansha, guangzhou in october 2017. today, it has set up r&d centers in first-tier chinese cities such as beijing, shanghai, guangzhou and shenzhen, and has expanded its autonomous driving business to saudi arabia, the united arab emirates, south korea, luxembourg and other countries and regions, realizing the export of its technology and products.
when doki asked why nansha was chosen as the location for operations, li kang replied: "nansha is very welcoming to new technologies and start-ups, especially in the field of autonomous driving, where regulations and policies have given great support. it has a cultural atmosphere of tolerance for innovation and is an ideal place for entrepreneurs to explore new technologies."
in li kang's view, the cooperation between nansha and pony.ai is a "two-way journey". autonomous driving is injecting new vitality into the urban economy and providing citizens with more diversified transportation solutions.
what impact will the introduction of driverless taxis have on the lives of local residents? li kang said: "now the residents of nansha are very familiar with and accustomed to the ubiquitous self-driving vehicles. many people choose driverless taxis as their daily means of transportation. we often see users calling our cars to go to school or shopping." she also shared an interesting story: "we sometimes receive lost and found requests. one time, a bag of pork was found in the car, which shows that the passenger has already used the driverless car as his daily means of transportation."
after listening to li kang's introduction, doki is full of expectations for more convenient and smarter transportation methods in the future.
regarding the next step for pony.ai's robotaxi, a relevant person in charge of pony.ai said that robotaxi has been operating in the entire nansha area and has achieved unmanned commercialization. in the future, it will promote unmanned commercialization on a larger scale, but it still faces technical, cost and policy challenges. technically, it is necessary to ensure that the autonomous driving system is safe and stable, able to handle complex scenarios, and take into account the passenger experience; in terms of cost, large-scale mass production is needed to reduce costs and cooperate with car manufacturers; in terms of policy, it is necessary to obtain licenses at different stages and meet the corresponding requirements. for any company that provides unmanned driving solutions, these are challenges that need to be overcome.
general planner | du chuangui lin hailigeneral coordinator | hu quan and jiang zhengexecutive coordinator | zhao peng and li guohuitext, photos and videos by liu yongxi and wen zeguang
