The Download: Chinese robotaxi drivers, and AI gun detection

When Liu Yang started his current job, he found it hard to go back to driving his own car: "I instinctively went for the passenger seat. Or when I was driving, I would expect the car to brake by itself," says the 33-year-old Beijing native, who joined the Chinese tech giant Baidu in January 2021 as a robotaxi driver. Robotaxi driver is an occupation that only exists in our time, the result of an evolving technology that's advanced enough to get rid of a driver--most of the time, in controlled environments-- but not good enough to convince authorities that they can do away with human intervention altogether. Liu is one of the hundreds of safety operators employed by Baidu, "driving" five days a week in Shougang Park. But despite having only worked for the company for 19 months, he already has to think about his next career move, as his job will likely be eliminated within a few years.