China’s biggest self-driving tech firms pull out of US amid rising geopolitical tensions
Total distance driven by Chinese autonomous cars on public roads in California dropped almost 74 per cent in the 12 months to November 2023
China’s biggest autonomous driving tech companies, including Baidu and Didi Chuxing, have drastically scaled back road tests in the US, and in some cases have ended them altogether, according to industry reports and company sources.
The cutbacks, made over the past few years, preceded the announcement by the US Commerce Department last month that it would ban autonomous driving software from China. That means many of the Chinese players will not be affected as the regulation only applies to new models released starting from 2027.
The total distance driven by Chinese autonomous cars on public roads in California, one of the most self-driving vehicle friendly states in the US, dropped almost 74 per cent to 121,428 miles in the 12 months ending November 2023, compared with a year earlier, according to data from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
That goes against the overall trend, in which DMV data shows that total autonomous mileage reached a record 9 million miles in the same period, up nearly 60 per cent year on year.
Chinese companies like Didi saw a drop of 90 per cent in self-driving test mileage in 2023, and Didi is no longer active in the autonomous-vehicle testing programme in California. QCraft, DeepRoute.ai and Inceptio, Chinese start-ups that had test driving records in 2021 and 2022, have also pulled out, DMV said in an emailed response to the Post.
For those still holding test permits, there have been sharp drops in mileage. Test vehicles from AutoX and Pony.ai, both autonomous driving start-ups founded in Silicon Valley with headquarters in China, travelled 84 per cent and 82 per cent less between December 2022 and November 2023, compared with the previous year.
