China's biggest car rental company now offers autonomous cars

Three-seater from Baidu delivers itself, follows directions, then finds its way home

China’s largest car rental operator, Car Inc., now rents autonomous cars.

The company, also known as “Zuche”, is using cars from Chinese tech giant Baidu for the service. China’s government let Baidu’s “Apollo” cars hit the road in 2021, albeit in very small sections of Beijing.

The driverless cars now provide taxi service in eleven Chinese cities, but the cars can’t travel beyond designated areas due to geofencing restrictions – Beijing’s not yet happy letting Level 4 robo-cars roll across all of China’s highways and byways.

Zuche's announcement of the service states the cars can handle “multiple scenarios such as daily commuting and weekend trips” but didn’t mention geofencing or specify the cars’ range. Baidu’s announcement, however, refers to an “operational area”. It is therefore unclear if this is a cute way to get around town or a tool that means the relaxing part of a weekend in the country starts as soon as you get in the car. Were also in the dark about what happens if the car’s batteries deplete.

Despite those missing details, Zuche chair Yu Hongfei declared the new service “is reshaping the essential human understanding of human beings about ‘travel’.”

The chair also said Zuche’s pricing will be “consistent” with the sums it charges for short-term rentals of conventional cars.

Whatever it costs to rent the three-seaters, they will appear at whatever location customers designate. Customers can program itineraries, and the cars will find the optimal routes. Zuche says the service has no learning curve.

Another fact Zuche didn’t reveal is how many robo-cars it’s added to its fleet, which numbers over 160,000 vehicles spread across 340-plus cities. ®