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China’s Robotaxis Hit the Road: Where They Operate and What “Driverless” Means

Robotaxis have entered paid, permitted service in China, but routes, hours and driver requirements vary. Here’s what is established for Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Entry338 Date Time4 min MechanicCarCody Team
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China’s robotaxis have moved beyond pilots into paid, permitted public-road service, but availability depends on the city, route and permit. Beijing has approved paid autonomous shuttle service involving WeRide and Pony.ai to Beijing South Railway Station, while Pony.ai announced fully driverless commercial Gen-7 services in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in November 2025. Those announcements do not establish that every route is open to every rider today—or that every permitted vehicle operates without a safety driver.

Where can you ride a robotaxi in China?

The clearest named public-service area is Beijing. In 2025, Beijing approved paid autonomous shuttle service involving WeRide and Pony.ai to Beijing South Railway Station, with initial operating hours of 10:00 to 16:00. Separately, WeRide said it received a commercial permit for robotaxi rides between the station and the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area. These are specific service permissions, not evidence that robotaxis are available across all of Beijing.

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Pony.ai announced fully driverless Gen-7 commercial services across Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in November 2025. The announcement establishes those cities as locations for the company’s announced services; it does not specify all routes, hours, booking channels or current ride availability. Check the operator’s current service information before making travel plans.

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Service or announcement Area and status Driver requirement Hours and booking details
Beijing autonomous shuttle service involving WeRide and Pony.ai (Beijing, 2025) Paid service approved to Beijing South Railway Station; initial service hours were 10:00–16:00. Not stated in the Beijing announcement. Initial hours: 10:00–16:00. Booking channel not stated in the announcement.
WeRide robotaxi service (Beijing, 2025) WeRide said it received a commercial permit for rides between Beijing South Railway Station and the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area. The permit category as described in the announcement does not establish whether a safety driver is required. Hours and booking channel not stated in the announcement.
Pony.ai Gen-7 commercial services (November 2025) Pony.ai announced fully driverless commercial services in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Specific routes are not stated in the announcement. Announced as fully driverless. Hours and booking channel not stated in the announcement.

Does “driverless” mean there is no safety driver?

It depends on the vehicle’s permit, not just the company or city. Pony.ai’s 2025 Form 20-F says China’s four tier-one cities issue separate permits for robotaxis operating with a safety driver and for fully driverless robotaxis. A company’s permission to run a robotaxi service therefore does not, by itself, show which category applies to a particular ride.

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Pony.ai described its Gen-7 commercial services as fully driverless. The Beijing shuttle approval and the WeRide Beijing commercial permit described above do not specify a safety-driver category in the available announcements. Do not infer that a ride is driverless merely because it is called a robotaxi or operates commercially; look for the specific service and permit description.

How the fleets are being built

Pony.ai’s Gen-7 production plans

In July 2025, Pony.ai said Gen-7 mass production and road testing had begun and set a target of 1,000 vehicles in its fleet by the end of 2025. That was a target, not a reported final fleet count. Pony.ai and Toyota also planned to produce more than 1,000 Gen-7 bZ4X robotaxis in 2026, reflecting a move toward a standardized vehicle platform. A production plan is not confirmation that those vehicles have all been built or deployed.

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Reported scale is not a safety comparison

Pony.ai’s 2025 Form 20-F reported nearly one million users by late March 2026. That figure describes reported users; it is not a count of rides, vehicles, or a measure of safety. WeRide’s 2025 annual-report material said it had more than 250 robotaxis deployed outside China and the United States. That is a deployment figure for locations outside those two markets, not a count of its China fleet.

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What riders should check before booking

  • Confirm the exact pickup and drop-off area. The Beijing permissions named here concern specific station and development-area routes; Pony.ai’s city announcement does not list every route.
  • Check whether the service is open at your travel time. The 10:00–16:00 hours were the initial hours for the Beijing South Station shuttle approval, not a general schedule for all Chinese robotaxis.
  • Read the service’s driver-status description. Permit categories differ, and the Beijing shuttle and WeRide permit announcements cited above do not state whether a safety driver is required.
  • Use the operator’s current booking information. The announcements discussed here do not establish a universal app or booking channel.

How much can you infer about safety?

Public-road permissions and commercial operations show that regulators have authorized particular services under particular conditions. They do not establish how one operator compares with another on safety. The cited company materials do not provide independent, apples-to-apples safety rates, so fleet size, user totals and the label “fully driverless” should not be treated as comparative safety results.

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Bottom line

China has permitted paid robotaxi and autonomous shuttle services, with named operations or announcements in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Beijing South Station is the most specifically described public-service location in the available announcements, including an initial 10:00–16:00 shuttle schedule. To know whether a ride is actually bookable, which route it covers and whether a safety driver is present, check the current operator listing and the permit category for that specific service.

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