Beijing (Gasgoo)- Baidu's autonomous driving mobility service, Apollo Go, started off pilot paid commercial operation in Changsha, the capital city of Hunan Province. As one of the earliest cities to adopt autonomous mobility services in China, Changsha holds a favorable ecosystem and test environment for the intelligent connected vehicle industry. The city established a national-level intelligent connected vehicle test area and a 100-square-kilometer intelligent connected open city road area. It constructed 100km of intelligent highway and a 7.8-km smart bus demonstration route. The achievements created the fundamental conditions for the development of Apollo Go's commercialization in the city.

The robotaxi service is under trial run for citizens in Changsha, and passengers can hail self-driving robotaxis through mobile app. AutoX, a Chinese autonomous vehicle startup, has announced the launch of a fleet of 100 self-driving RoboTaxis in Shanghai's Jiading district, where it will be competing with Didi, which began operating there at the end of June. Other companies, such as Pony.ai, Baidu or WeRide are already running self-driving taxi fleets in other Chinese cities, many of which can be booked through mapping and mobility apps such as AutoNavi or LetzGo. AutoX runs another fleet in the centric district of Nanshan in Shenzen, where it is based, and now has a license to road test in California, and has long announced its intention to launch its services in Europe through a partnership with NEVS, the company that acquired Saab's assets.

HONG KONG – After Steven Yang left his coveted job at Google, he asked his mother whether he should take venture capital money to fund his business idea. If his online consumer electronics enterprise was a risky bet, she told him, go with the venture capitalists. But if building the business into something great was his destiny, he instead should use her money from her pharmaceutical career in China. So Yang combined his Google money with his mom's, and with less than $1 million in seed capital he moved from California to Shenzhen -- a hub in southern China for technology companies. Seven years later, Anker Innovations Technology Co. sells products ranging from smartphone chargers to portable power banks on Amazon.com.