Tesla chases robotaxi rivals and China goes local for auto chips

Nikkei Asia

10 hours ago

Hello from Yifan in California, your #techasia host this week.
I've been thinking a lot about the future of my job ever since Google's I/O event in May, where the U.S. tech giant laid out an ambitious plan to define what search will look like in the future.
Some users in the U.S. may have already seen the roll-out of AI mode, a new segment on the search page that directs them to a ChatGPT-like interface where an AI assistant provides the answers they were looking for. Google is actively nudging users to try out this new mode of search, and it's not hard to imagine that it will eventually replace the current Google search box altogether.
While Google and other AI companies often reference the original sources of information in AI-generated answers as footnotes with a link, I doubt many users click on them.
The reporting I and my fellow journalists do everyday is used and will continue to be used in AI search results, but with fewer and fewer readers reading the original article. Newsrooms will suffer greatly -- if not completely disappear -- due to this new age of search.
But it's not only a problem for newsrooms. How, for example, can we make sure that AI-generated answers are not misinterpreting the results of nuanced, carefully thought-out investigative reporting? Will misinformation and bias become even more prevalent?
Some might say this way of thinking is too alarmist, and the future of AI dictating what information we get is still far away from us today.
Well, it's not.
AI, in many ways, will be a story similar to robotaxis. There were highs and there were lows for the self-driving industry, when over-optimistic projections led to utter disappointment.
But now, robotaxis are becoming a reality, with Waymo, and many Chinese companies already rolling out fare-charging driverless taxi services in some of the biggest cities in the world. In fact, I am writing this newsletter from the backseat of a Waymo car in San Francisco, where I'll be meeting a robotics startup founder who believes robotaxis are only the start of the "physical AI" revolution that will eventually replace most human workers.
I took my first robotaxi test-ride seven years ago and since then have witnessed how the industry improved itself, one small step at a time, to the point that a futuristic fantasy is now on the cusp of becoming a new reality for transportation.
The incremental changes that AI brings to society will eventually accumulate in a similar way, culminating in a fundamental transformation.
Your move, Tesla
As Tesla prepares for its long-awaited robotaxi debut in Austin,Texas, this week, all eyes are on the U.S. EV giant to see if Elon Musk can deliver on the vision he promised last year.
But the U.S. EV giant might already be falling behind its U.S. and Chinese peers in the driverless taxi race.
Waymo's rollout in San Francisco has been so successful that its orders have surpassed Lyft as the second-most popular ride-hailing service in the city.
In China, meanwhile, several companies already have cars on the road. Baidu operates a fleet of around 1,000 Apollo Go robotaxis, which provided more than 1.4 million rides in the first quarter. Pony.ai has a fleet of over 300 robotaxis and aims to expand it to 1,000 vehicles by the end of this year and 2,000-3,000 by the end of 2026. WeRide's fleet numbers around 400, Nikkei Asia's Cissy Zhou and Yifan Yu report.
While the focus now for both the U.S. and Chinese players is to ramp up their service in their home markets, they will soon go head-to-head in overseas markets like Europe and the Middle East, as many have already started laying out the groundwork for expansion through local partnerships.
Not so fast
A $35 billion merger between U.S. semiconductor giants Synopsys and Ansys is facing delays from China's antitrust regulator, write the Financial Times' Zijing Wu and Cheng Leng.
The deal, already approved in the U.S. and Europe, was expected to close this month. but Beijing's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has postponed its decision.
This hold-up comes as U.S.-China trade tensions escalate, with recent U.S. restrictions on chip design software sales to China.
While some sources link the delay to these geopolitical factors, others suggest the deal's complexity is the primary cause. An approval could still come through if Synopsys addresses SAMR's concerns. The merger has a "drop dead clause" that specifies the deal must be completed by Jan. 15, 2026.
Homegrown hardware
Chinese automakers including SAIC Motor, Changan, Great Wall Motor, BYD, Li Auto and Geely, are preparing to launch models equipped with 100% homemade chips, with at least two brands aiming to start mass production as early as 2026, Nikkei Asia's Cissy Zhou, Cheng Ting-Fang and Lauly Li report.
These efforts are part of Beijing's ambitious vision for increasing the country's self-reliance in chips amid intensifying tensions with the U.S. The project to transition to 100% Chinese auto chips is shepherded by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), which regularly calls on automakers, particularly the state-owned ones, to conduct self-assessments of their domestic chip adoption rates.
The latest policy target is to use 100% self-developed and made automotive chips by 2027, which is a significant acceleration of the government's previous target of having domestic automakers using 25% homemade chips this year.
Nuclear heats up
With the rising energy demand driven by AI and data centers, nuclear energy is increasingly becoming a topic of interest for both the public and private sector.
Nikkei's Tomohiro Ebuchi, Ryuto Imao and Seishi Minowa report that Japan and the U.K. will collaborate on nuclear fusion, a technology that promises to be safer and release more energy than the current technology used in nuclear reactors.
Hiroshi Masuko, a senior official in Japan's science ministry, and Kerry McCarthy, parliamentary undersecretary of state at the U.K.'s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, are set to sign a memorandum of cooperation in London on Thursday. The partnership will combine the U.K.'s remote-controlled robot technology and Japan's manufacturing capabilities in a bid to achieve a viable demonstration by the 2030s.
The two countries will collaborate on research and development, shared use of facilities, human resource development, and establishment of safety regulations. Industry groups from both countries are also hammering out a memorandum on cooperation.
Welcome to the Tech Latest podcast. Hosted by our tech coverage veterans, Katey Creel and Akito Tanaka, every Tuesday we deliver the hottest trends and news from the sector.
In this episode, Katey speaks with Mai Nguyen in Hanoi about the latest developments in Vietnam's AI ambitions and how it plans to leverage its status as an emerging tech hub to move up global economic rankings in the coming years.
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