From "Epidemic Epicenter" to "City of the Future": "Is an Invisible Person Driving?" 400 Robo-Taxis Hit the Streets [Regulation-Free City, Mega Sandbox] ②

Starting with 5, Now 400 Fully Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles
Government Lays the Groundwork, Local Authorities Back Corporate Innovation
With Cities, Regulations, and Infrastructure Opened Up, Robo-taxis Become a Reality

A fully autonomous robo-taxi without a driver is operating in downtown Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Photo by Jang Heejoon

"When I saw the taxi moving with an empty driver's seat, I thought an invisible person was driving it. At first, we called it a turtle car, but now it runs so well that it can even overtake regular vehicles." (Li Hao, 22, university student)

His amused remark stands in stark contrast to Wuhan's past, when the city was locked down as the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak. The city, once deserted with only ambulance sirens echoing through empty streets, now presents a completely different face.

Along the streets, white robo-taxis with empty driver’s seats lined up in succession. When the traffic lights changed, the cars stopped smoothly, and sensors at intersections adjusted their speed. The vehicles exchanged data with each other to maintain set distances, while citizens walked by unperturbed. Logistics trucks and unmanned delivery vehicles followed behind, and a citywide 5G network controlled everything in real time.

Wuhan is no longer a city at a standstill, but has become a vast laboratory powered by data. The government designated it as a pilot city for autonomous driving, with companies such as Baidu and Dongfeng testing their technologies on actual roads. In effect, technology has brought the city’s roads, once halted, back to life.

Wuhan Transforms Into an Autonomous Driving Testbed... Robo-Taxis Jump from 5 to 400 in Two Years

In Wuhan, autonomous driving is no longer a novel technology. Commuters routinely hail unmanned taxis via smartphone apps for their daily rides. Four hundred units of Baidu’s Apollo Go robo-taxi now operate throughout the city, having become an everyday mode of transportation. In May 2022, just two years ago, there were only five robo-taxis running on Wuhan’s roads. The nearly 80-fold increase in just two years indicates that regulatory changes have outpaced technological advances.

According to Baidu, by August this year, Apollo Go robo-taxis had provided over 14 million ride services in 16 cities, including Wuhan. Once a "regulation-free" environment was established, changes happened rapidly. Autonomous driving has expanded beyond taxis to include tour buses and logistics. Dongfeng Weixiang, a subsidiary of the Chinese automaker Dongfeng, now operates robo-buses shuttling tourists between major attractions, while courier company Zhongtong Kuaidi has normalized unmanned deliveries from logistics centers to apartment complexes.

"Central Government Draws the Blueprint, Local Governments Execute... Wuhan Demonstrates Policy Speed"

Autonomous vehicles did not immediately start driving freely on the roads. Between 2016 and 2018, initial trials began with a 10-kilometer demonstration route, and both the government and companies reviewed the results, gradually expanding the operating area each year. Ren Xuefeng, Vice President of Huarizhixing, a company providing smart road solutions that enabled autonomous driving, explained, "The government, seeing the potential, created new ordinances and regulations every year, and full-scale commercialization began last year." In less than a decade, "unmanned taxis" have become an established commercial service.

The Wuhan observed on the ground was not simply a regulatory testbed. It was more like an "integrated laboratory" where regulations, city infrastructure, and technology were closely intertwined. The central government laid out the big picture and set the stage, while local governments built the infrastructure and enabled companies to operate. Once regulatory doors opened, companies accelerated immediately, turning the city into a hub for advanced industrial experiments. It was policy determination, not technology, that dictated the industry's pace.

The central government of China has designated new energies like electricity and hydrogen, as well as intelligent connected vehicles (ICVs), as the future of the automotive industry, establishing the foundation for autonomous driving demonstrations through laws and regulations. The "Ordinance on Promoting Intelligent Connected Vehicles" enacted last year stipulates that the development of technologies combining energy, information and communications, and artificial intelligence (AI) in vehicles should be actively pursued. It also includes a mandatory provision for local governments to support the autonomous driving industry.

Accordingly, Wuhan took bold steps to accelerate progress. It became the first city nationwide to install 5G base stations throughout its entire area and built a dense vehicle-to-everything (V2X) network enabling cars, roads, and infrastructure to exchange information. High-definition (HD) maps were created for all routes. The pilot road for autonomous driving, which was only 28 kilometers in 2020, expanded to 106 kilometers in just one year.

Smart traffic lights and sensors detect obstacles and relay information to vehicles within 10 seconds. Vice President Ren explained, "As 5G communication speeds have increased, safety supervisors who used to sit in the robo-taxi driver's seat have disappeared, and remote support is now possible via cloud systems." In this way, local governments have exercised broad discretion in implementing central government policies, from creating industrial complexes and attracting companies to investing in infrastructure.

"From Wuhan to All of China... A Chinese-Style Collaboration Model for New Industries"

With the successful commercialization test of robo-taxis in Wuhan, the Chinese government’s autonomous driving experiment has gained momentum. In April 2021, the first designated ICV pilot cities were six cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan, where major automakers are based. By July 2024, just three years later, the number had more than tripled to 20.

According to the Chinese government’s announcement at the time, many ministries-including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Transport, and the Ministry of Public Security-participated in the initiative. Each pilot city had to quickly formalize its business plan and submit it to the relevant ministries, while support measures such as funding were strengthened to ensure that the pilot projects delivered tangible results. Additionally, provincial authorities were assigned the "duty" to expand policy support for pilot cities and to enhance follow-up measures and evaluations.

While South Korea remains at the demonstration stage, unable to overcome regulatory hurdles, China has moved to commercialization through real-world road testing. Analysts point out that it is not technology, but the difference in institutions and decisiveness, that ultimately determined the speed of industrial development. The case of Wuhan demonstrates how open policies and effective execution can rapidly transform a city’s future. Notably, this transformation is not a matter of "one-sided support" in response to corporate demands, but the result of strategic cooperation in which the government fosters the growth of both industry and cities together.

This is not unique to Wuhan. Other major industrial cities in China are moving in the same direction. An official from the local finished vehicle industry explained, "Changchun in Jilin Province is home to the state-owned automaker FAW Group, and the automotive industry drives the city’s economy. The city itself presents future development directions to each company, provides chips (semiconductors) and road maps, and directly builds infrastructure such as base stations to pave the way for growth."

China’s political system may be communist, but that does not mean its industrial policy is one-way. For development, the government and companies meet as equals. Vice President Ren said, "The government, automakers, smart solution companies like Huarizhixing, and local governments regularly gather to prepare for the next stage and establish necessary regulations. They discuss what the problems are and what is needed to move forward." In this way, policy, technology, and cities move together, creating a uniquely Chinese pace of development.