5G will bring important changes to travel, and Didi Chuxing could save more than 100 billion yuan a year with automated driving, according to Yang Minghui, President of CITIC Securities, China's biggest broker.
At a summit hosted by Huawei today, Yang mentioned in a speech that in the 5G era, Didi needs to restructure the taxi business.
The biggest cost right now is driver expenses, which led to the ride-sharing platform's loss of 10.9 billion yuan in 2018.
The total number of orders completed on Didi's platform in 2017 was 7.43 billion, with a passenger unit price of $23, and driver costs accounting for 64% of the total. And if unmanned driving replaces the drivers, it could save Didi 109.3 billion yuan a year in driver expenses, Yang said.
Didi seems to be working in this direction.
In June, Meng Xing, chief operating officer of Didi Chuxing's autonomous driving unit, said that Didi plans to operate more than 1 million self-driving cars through its platform by 2030.
Meng said Didi was developing automated driving technology and plans to deploy so-called "robot taxis" in areas where there is a shortage in the supply of ride-hailing services.
Didi began piloting driverless taxis in Shanghai at the end of June, making such service available to the public for the first time.
After signing up for approval in the Didi Chuxing App, users will be able to test the driverless taxis in certain roads Jiading, Shanghai.
