Introduction

In a Beijing hutong in 2025, a young person waves at an intersection as three sleek, driverless sedans light up—not a scene from a science fiction film, but a glimpse of the commercial rollout of robotaxis. Meanwhile, in Phoenix, USA, Waymo's driverless cars have completed over 5 million rides and ventured into "fully driverless" nighttime services.

This quiet revolution is transforming our lifestyles at an unprecedented pace.

(For related reading, click:

"In China and the US: Comparative Testing of Xpeng and Tesla's Intelligent Driving Systems! Is the New Era of Autonomous Driving Here?")

I. Buying a Car or Hailing a Ride? A Cost-Benefit Analysis That Challenges Traditional Views

1. Chinese "Trust Frenzy" vs. American "Safety Anxiety"

Deloitte's 2023 global survey revealed that 84% of Chinese consumers are willing to give up personal cars for driverless vehicles, compared to only 44% in the US. Chinese consumers seem more receptive to new shared mobility models, reflecting a stark difference in technological trust environments. Subscriptions for Tesla's FSD surged 200% in China within three months, while Waymo's services in the US were temporarily suspended due to an accident.

"It's more reliable than my family driver!" exclaimed Ms. Zhang in Beijing's Yizhuang district after riding in a fully autonomous taxi.

2. Key Considerations Before Buying a Car

After crunching the numbers, Mr. Wang, a Beijing white-collar worker, decided to sell his five-year-old car: "With a 30-kilometer daily commute, the yearly fuel savings could buy the latest iPhone." In contrast, Silicon Valley engineer Mark, despite his enthusiasm for autonomous driving, prefers renting a car: "I'll trust my life to AI when it can handle California's notoriously curved 101 highway."

II. Automaker Showdown: From "Selling Iron" to "Selling Services" in a Survival Game

1. Tesla's "Software Siphon": Monthly Subscription Fees

When Musk announced a 10% price hike for FSD subscriptions, Chinese user Li Hao tweeted on Weibo: "Suggest including autonomous driving in the car price!" Behind this outcry lies Tesla's unique "software subscription model," where the real money is in the annual RMB 680 subscription fee, not the initial car sale.

Data shows Tesla's software service revenue exceeds 20% of its total revenue, 15 percentage points higher than its automotive gross margin.

2. GM's "Self-Redemption": The Business Logic Behind the Cruise Accident

The 2023 San Francisco traffic accident that garnered global attention led to a three-month suspension of GM Cruise's operations. However, this accident saved GM $2 billion by diverting planned R&D expenditures for L4 technology by 2030 to more reliable L2+/L3 assisted driving.

As GM CEO Mary Barra stated: "We'd rather be slow than become the Nokia of autonomous driving." Recently, Cruise suspended independent operations and merged into GM, adjusting its strategy to focus on advanced driving assistance for personal vehicles.

3. Baidu's "Asset-Light Dream": Behind 9 Million Rides

Baidu Apollo's robotaxis have served 9 million passengers in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, and other cities. However, few notice these vehicles' "invisible support"—when complex road conditions arise, they automatically connect to a cloud dispatch center where remote engineers take over.

This "human-machine co-driving" model allows Baidu to capture the market at a lower cost without owning a fleet.

III. Technological Undercover Battle: Lidar vs. Vision, Betting on the Future

1. The "Chinese Lidar Encirclement"

While Waymo in the US adheres to lidar, Chinese automakers are playing a game of "encircling the cities from the countryside." The NIO ET7 is equipped with a 1550nm lidar with a detection range exceeding 300 meters, and the Xpeng G9 features a dual-lidar system.

This technological divergence stems from China's complex road conditions—a tester from a Shenzhen tech company revealed: "In densely populated urban villages, lidar's accuracy in identifying electric poles is 40% higher than vision systems."

2. Tesla's "Pure Vision Belief"

Musk once stated bluntly: "Any company relying on lidar will fail." However, Tesla's Autopilot accident rate due to vision system misjudgments surged 27% year-on-year in 2024.

Yet, this hasn't deterred Chinese automakers: Huawei's ADS 2.0 system can identify "ghostly" pedestrians on highways using an 8-megapixel camera.

3. China's Vehicle-Road-Cloud Collaboration Solution

Beijing's Haidian District's "intelligent road network," comprising 5G base stations and roadside units, allows autonomous vehicles to predict traffic light changes 300 meters in advance.

This "vehicle-road-cloud integration" reduces individual vehicles' computational demand by 70%. Latest data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows China has built over 5,000 kilometers of smart roads, six times that of the US.

IV. Human Drivers: A Vanishing Profession or a Transformation Opportunity?

1. The "Twilight Zone" for Taxi Drivers

At a Hangzhou ride-hailing company, 50-year-old driver Mr. Wang anxiously checks his phone orders: "I used to complete 12 rides a day, but now the automatic dispatch system puts me at the end of the queue." However, a turning point emerged at the autonomous driving training center—Mr. Wang enrolled in a remote monitor course, earning RMB 30 more per hour than driving.

"Though I don't press the accelerator, monitoring 30 vehicles daily is much easier."

2. Birth of New Professions: Cloud "Designated Drivers" and Data Annotators

In Shanghai's Lingang New Area, post-95s Ms. Xiao Lin works as a "virtual safety officer," monitoring 10 robotaxis in real-time through VR glasses. This job pays RMB 15,000 per month and requires processing 30GB of vehicle data per second.

Meanwhile, in a Guiyang science and technology park, 2,000 data annotators "feed" over 100PB of street imagery to autonomous driving systems.

V. The Final Showdown: China vs. USA in Defining Future Mobility

1. America's "Technological Dream" vs. China's "Pragmatism"

While Waymo tests driverless trucks in the Arizona desert, Chinese automakers conduct "real-world challenges" on Yangtze River Delta highways. The former pursues absolute technological leadership, while the latter focuses on commercialization.

This difference is also evident in policy: the US NHTSA allows automakers to "test and sell" simultaneously, while China employs a "sandbox regulation" system, requiring companies to pass 1 million kilometers of safety tests before commercialization.

2. The Battle for "Data Sovereignty"

As Tesla's in-car data flows to US servers, causing controversy, Chinese automakers have established localized data loops. Xpeng Motors CEO He Xiaopeng revealed: "All our data is stored in the supercomputing center in Guizhou, with a 30-millisecond faster response than cross-border transmission."

This data barrier makes China's autonomous driving systems more adaptable to local road conditions.

3. Three Questions Before Handing Over the Wheel to AI

First, where do human drivers go when autonomous driving becomes widespread?

Second, how do we balance personal freedom and social benefits between private cars and shared mobility?

Third, who will protect our privacy and safety amidst rapid technological advancements?

In summary, the public account "Robotaxi Is Coming" believes this revolution, born in a Silicon Valley garage, is evolving concurrently in Beijing's hutongs and Silicon Valley streets. Perhaps, as Musk said: "We're not building cars, we're building the future." And that future belongs to innovators who dare to take risks and ordinary people who think rationally. After all, the steering wheel's ultimate destination should embody not just technological victory, but human brilliance.

Dear reader, what do you think?