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California has been a testing ground for a slew of robotaxis, from Waymo to Amazon's Zoox—but seven firms based in China are quietly testing their robotaxis in the state, too.
Chinese-owned companies WeRide, Baidu's Apollo, Pony.ai, Didi Research America, and AutoX are all developing autonomous vehicles that were tested on California roads last year, Fortune reports. Robotaxis from Chinese firms have already logged over 1.8 million miles in the Golden State alone across Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Jose in the past six years, according to the report, which cites data from the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Pony.ai logged over 50,000 miles in California, while WeRide drove 40,000 miles in the state last year.
Self-driving vehicles are equipped with a range of technology that allows them to drive without a person's involvement. This means there are plenty of cameras, microphones, and sensors rigged to the vehicles that record video and audio information. The robotaxis also log other types of road data to further fine-tune their movements.
But some of these firms may be storing their US data in China, according to the report, which could pose a privacy or national security concern to those already questioning other Chinese-owned firms active in the US, like TikTok. Baidu's privacy policies note that any data may be processed and stored in China. Pony.ai transmitted US data to China until 2021, according to the report. WeRide claims it keeps all data local, and said that it does not share any data with the Chinese government.
In a statement to PCMag, WeRide also denies that its vehicles are robotaxis, instead calling them "autonomous driving test vehicles." The company also emphasized that while it does collect and process US data, its cars "automatically [edit] videos to mask human faces and license plates" and deletes the original unmasked clips.
While Chinese robotaxi firms are allowed to test their vehicles in the US, in part due to a lack of regulation more broadly, American companies aren't allowed to do the same in China. A few months ago, however, Tesla CEO Elon Musk managed to convince Chinese authorities to let his electric vehicles operate their "Full Self-Driving" modes in China, which still requires a human driver but offers features like automated lane changes and parking.
Tesla has to partner with a Chinese firm to implement the tech there, however. Baidu—not an American company—will be handling and providing the mapping and location data of Chinese streets, and all data will be stored in China to meet its data security requirements.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to include comment from WeRide.