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Hello robotaxi crash tests China's autonomous-driving rollout as liability questions linger

抖音热门 2025年12月12日 06:52 1 admin

by ZHOU Mo, LIN Xinlong

Hello robotaxi crash tests China's autonomous-driving rollout as liability questions linger

A pedestrian-injury crash involving a Hello Inc. robotaxi in the central city of Zhuzhou has renewed scrutiny of China's rapid push into commercial autonomous driving, raising fresh questions about how liability will be assigned when accidents occur.

Footage circulating online on December 6 showed a vehicle marked "Hello Autonomous Driving" stopped at a crosswalk while bystanders and police lifted the car to free a person trapped underneath. Two injured people were taken to a local hospital, according to local media reports. Local police have yet to issue a fault determination, and Hello has not commented.

Residents told Jiemian News the city had experienced days of heavy street-sprinkling that left roads slick. Hello's customer service said the company had suspended autonomous-driving operations in Zhuzhou. Although the Hello app still displays an autonomy option when users set their location to Zhuzhou or Jiangsu's Liyang, booking attempts return "out of service." Social-media videos also showed multiple Hello robotaxis being moved from a local facility, and users said vehicles could no longer be hailed.

The accident came a week after a Zhuzhou passenger reported that a Hello robotaxi she rode in struck another vehicle on November 28 but continued driving roughly 200 meters to her destination rather than stopping. She said she noticed no sign of remote takeover, though customer service later told her a safety operator had intervened. China's traffic rules require drivers to stop immediately after a collision and preserve the scene.

Hello began offering L4-level autonomous-driving trials in Zhuzhou in August. L4 systems can operate without human input in defined conditions, but China's rules still assume a human driver is the liable party. The company has said its fleet can be remotely controlled through a cloud-based operations center.

YOU Yunting, a senior partner at Shanghai DeBund Law Firm, said responsibility will hinge on the police finding. If an L4 vehicle is judged at fault, he said, liability would fall on the operating platform. Civil claims may be handled under product-quality law, and technology suppliers could face additional exposure if they knowingly deploy defective systems. Proving that, he added, is difficult and requires internal data that is rarely accessible.

Hello, best known in China for its bike-sharing platform, is a newcomer to China's robotaxi sector, which includes more established operators such as Baidu, Pony.ai and AutoX that have been conducting road tests for several years. The company entered the field only in June after forming Shanghai Zaofu Intelligent Technology with Ant Group and CATL, committing more than RMB 3 billion (about US$425 million) to L4 development and commercialization. In September, it unveiled its first purpose-built model, the HR1, targeting mass production in 2026 and deployment of more than 50,000 units in 2027. The vehicle involved in the Zhuzhou crash was not an HR1.

Industry executives say robotaxi commercialization typically requires extensive mileage to validate safety. One person familiar with the sector said Hello's short development window leaves limited time to build the necessary data. A former employee said the team relied heavily on off-the-shelf technologies and had limited in-house algorithm development. Hello had previously considered buying Baidu's high-precision maps but did not proceed.

Job postings show Hello is still expanding its autonomous-driving group. Recent cooperation agreements with Venucia, Alibaba Cloud, Horizon Robotics and Hesai suggest its technology stack is still being assembled.

The Zhuzhou case comes as Chinese cities widen autonomous-vehicle pilots and companies push toward driverless operations. The findings are likely to shape regulatory views on data disclosure, remote control of vehicles and how responsibility is assigned when autonomous systems fail.

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