Nissan-backed self-driving startup offers robotaxis in China

More robotaxis are hitting the streets in China. Self-driving startup WeRide launched a trial robotaxi service in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Thursday, Xinhua News reported.

This is the second trial for WeRide, which launched the service last year, albeit only for two hours. The fleet of dozens of robotaxis will operate with local taxi group Baiyun and cover 144 square kilometers in the city. The company, previously known as JingChi, is using electric vehicles from Nissan, which is part of WeRide investor Alliance RNM (Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi).

WeRide is one of several companies racing to put autonomous taxis on the streets of China. Pony.ai launched a robotaxi service last year, and it might be headed to California soon along with another local contender, AutoX. Tech giant Baidu, which once sued JingChi over alleged technology theft before dropping the case, launched its Apollo robotaxi in September. Google’s Waymo doesn’t have taxis in China yet, but it set up a subsidiary in Shanghai last year.