Chinese self-driving car startup AutoX Inc., a company that also has a presence in Silicon Valley, has launched a publicly available robotaxi ride-hailing service in Shanghai.

The service is initially available in Shanghai’s Jiading District, with a population of 1.47 million people. It can be booked through Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd.’s AutoNavi smartphone app or through the Letzgo app.

AutoX has struck a strategic partnership with Letzgo for the service to allow its robotaxis to be hailed via their app. Notably, Letzgo, based in Shanghai with operations in 18 cities in mainland China, is owned by Volkswagen AG. Under the deal, AutoX provides its “AutoX Driver” platform of robotaxis while Letzgo will run daily fleet operations.

In the COVID-19 era, AutoX has taken special precautions to keep riders safe: Customers need only say the last four digits of their cellphone number to a voice recognition system within the vehicle to start their journey. During the trip, passengers can monitor their progress with an internal screen. Objects around the vehicle are also displayed so they can understand how an autonomous vehicle perceives the world and makes decisions.

The company is already testing its robotaxi services in Shenzhen, Wuhan and Wuhu as well as several other cities around the world, with plans to launch commercial services in those cities in the coming months.

While not listing the cities outside mainland China in which it’s trialing its services, the company has previously tested autonomous food delivery services in San Jose, California, and was reported in 2018 to be looking at providing services in Mountain View and Palo Alto. AutoX also claims to have provided the first robotaxi ride in California in July 2019.

AutoX has raised $160.1 million in venture capital funding, according to Crunchbase, from a variety of investors, Alibaba’s Entrepreneurs Fund the most notable among them.

Photo: AutoX