The withdrawal also comes after a challenging period for Didi, which faced regulatory issues in China and was banned from taking on new customers until January 2023 due to concerns over potential data leaks. The company, which had plans to produce its own range of driverless "robotaxis" in China by 2025, has not commented on its decision to withdraw from the California testing program.
Key takeaways:
- Chinese tech startups, including ride-hailing giant Didi, have scaled back or completely stopped testing of autonomous vehicles in California, amid growing scrutiny from US lawmakers and public backlash.
- Didi's American research arm withdrew from California’s autonomous vehicle testing program in February 2024 and is no longer authorized to test autonomous vehicles in the state.
- Five Chinese-based companies — Baidu Apollo, Pony.ai, WeRide, Didi, and AutoX — drove around 130,000 miles on public roads in California between December 2022 and November 2023, a significant decline from over 450,000 miles of testing the previous year.
- US lawmakers have raised concerns about Chinese autonomous vehicle companies collecting sensitive data while testing their vehicles in the US, with some describing Chinese driverless cars as a threat to national security.