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Digital technologies, particularly AIs, are actively entering the transport sector. For example, a robotaxi (or robot taxi and robo-taxi) is a self-driving taxi or driverless car, as an autonomous vehicle (with the level of automation at 4-5) and operated for a ridesharing company. These transport facilities could have positive e.g. in traffic congestion and parking, but still are often insecure. Robotaxi could be available in some European states on the Lyft app already in 2026.
Background
Some studies have hypothesized that robotaxis operated in an autonomous mobility on demand service (aka, AMoD) could be one of the most rapidly adopted applications of autonomous cars at scale and a major mobility solution, especially in urban areas.
Source: Ambadipudi, Aditya; Heineke, Kersten; Kampshoff Philipp and Shao, Emily (October 2017), in “Gauging the disruptive power of robo-taxis in autonomous driving”. – McKinsey & Company.
Neural networks have several use cases across many industries; using a computer vision opens the ability to digitalize and extract information from images. With neural networks, computers can distinguish and recognize images similar to humans: computer vision has several applications, such as visual recognition in self-driving cars so they can recognize road signs and other road users.
Self-driving cars
These digital appliances could have a very positive impact on road safety, traffic congestion and parking.
More in: =”Self-Driving Vehicles, Robo-Taxis, and the Urban Mobility Revolution”. 2017, in: www.bcgperspectives.com. = “Ten ways autonomous driving could redefine the automotive world”. 2017/ – McKinsey & Company. = Lee, Timothy B. (March 2015). “5 reasons self-driving taxis are going to be amazing”. – Vox. = “How shared self-driving cars could change city traffic”. March 2015, in International Transport Forum. = Walker, Jonathan; Johnson, Charlie (2016). “Peak Car Ownership Report” – Rocky Mountain Institute.
Robotaxis could also reduce urban pollution and energy consumption, since these services will most probably use electric cars for most of the rides; less vehicle size and range is necessary compared to individually owned vehicles. The expected reduction in number of vehicles means less embodied energy; however, energy consumption for redistribution of empty vehicles must be taken into account.
Sources: = Buschbacher, Harald (April 2018). “2-wheel personal rapid transit: Self-driving vehicles for maximum sustainability” – Proceedings of 7th Transport Research Arena TRA. doi:10.5281/zenodo.1441105. = Spieser, Kevin; Treleaven, Kyle; Zhang, Rick; Frazzoli, Emilio; Morton, Daniel; Pavone, Marco (2014). “Toward a Systematic Approach to the Design and Evaluation of Automated Mobility-on-Demand Systems: A Case Study in Singapore”. – Road Vehicle Automation and lecture notes in mobility. – Springer, Cham. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-05990-7_20.hdl:1721.1/82904. ISBN 9783319059891. = Taiebat; Brown; Safford; Qu; Xu (2018). “A Review on Energy, Environmental, and Sustainability Implications of Connected and Automated Vehicles”. – Environmental Science & Technology. 52 (20): 11449–11465. arXiv:1901.10581. Doi: 10.1021/acs.est.8b00127. PMID 30192527. S2CID 52174043.
First trials
In August 2016, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick announced that his company would be opening autonomous taxi fleet to the public in Pittsburgh. In a race to be first, NuTonomy surprise-launched their robotaxi services a little bit later, though only to select members of the public through a closed-invitation and in a limited district in Singapore.
Uber proceeded with their public launch in September 2016, with customers being assigned human or autonomous cars interchangeably when requesting rides through the regular Uber app.
Sources: = Russell, Jon (18 August 2016). “Uber’s first self-driving cars will start picking up passengers this month”. TechCrunch. = Bidkar, Chinmay (August 2016). “World’s First Self-Driving Taxis ‘NuTonomy’ Hit the Road in Singapore”. -Tech Story. = McFarland, Matt (August 2016). “Uber will soon offer free rides in self-driving Volvos”. – CNNMoney.
NuTonomy later signed three significant partnerships to develop its robotaxi service: with Grab, Uber’s rival in Southeast Asia, with Groupe PSA, which is supposed to provide the company with Peugeot 3008 SUVs and the last one with Lyft to launch a robotaxi service in Boston.
In August 2017, Cruise Automation, a self-driving startup acquired by General Motors in 2016, launched the beta version of a robotaxi service for its employees in San Francisco using a fleet of 46 Chevrolet Bolt EVs.
Progress in deployment
Presently, the situation in some providers is the following: = In May 2024, Baidu unveiled the Apollo ADFM app, claimed to be the world’s first Level 4 autonomous driving foundation model, along with the sixth-generation Apollo Go robotaxi, which can be produced under $30,000. The company also said in April 2024, that Apollo had accumulated over 100 million kilometers of autonomous driving without major accidents.
In August 2024, Apollo Go has deployed 400 robotaxis operating fully autonomously without any safety personnel on board in Wuhan, China by offering 24/7 service to 9 million residents; Baidu aimed for Apollo Go to achieve operational unit breakeven in Wuhan by the end of 2024.
Reference to: = Kang, Lei (May 2024). “Baidu Apollo launches 6th-gen robotaxi with 60% lower cost”. – CnEVPost. = Transcribing, Motley Fool (August 2024). “Baidu (BIDU) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript”. – The Motley Fool.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotaxi
However, predictions of the widespread and rapid introduction of robotaxis by as early as 2018 have not been realized, notes Wikipedia; but there are a number of trials underway in cities around the world, some of which are open to the public and generate revenue.
However, as of 2021, questions have been raised as to whether the progress of self-driving technology has stalled and whether issues of social acceptance, cybersecurity and cost have been addressed.
Citation from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotaxi