Luo Bo Kuai Pao's Expedition Sets Sail, Faces Off Against the "Three Giants"

Within less than a month, autonomous driving company Roborace has successively reached strategic cooperation agreements with ride-hailing platforms Uber and Lyft, accelerating its overseas expansion.

Gaishi Auto has learned that with breakthrough progress expected in overseas autonomous driving regulatory environments, a new wave of outbound expansion is being triggered. Globally, the top three giants represented by Baidu's Luobo Kuaipao, Waymo, and Tesla Robotaxi have already formed distinct contrasts in terms of technological routes, market strategies, and commercialization pace. As Luobo Kuaipao ventures overseas, the direct confrontation among the "big three" is intensifying.

Signed contracts with Uber and Lyft successively, accelerating the pace of international expansion.

On August 4th, Robobus (Luobo Kuaipao) reached a strategic partnership with the mobility platform Lyft. Robobus will provide autonomous ride-hailing services in Europe through the Lyft platform. The two parties plan to first deploy Robobus’s sixth-generation autonomous vehicles in Germany and the UK in 2026, and then gradually expand the fleet to thousands of vehicles in the European market, achieving large-scale deployment of autonomous driving.

Lyft is the second largest ride-hailing giant overseas after Uber, with over 20 million active users in total. It mainly operates in the European and North American markets. In Europe, it has entered 9 countries and launched services in more than 150 cities, attracting millions of users.

Image source: Luobo Kuaipao

Robin Li stated that the cooperation with Lyft to deploy autonomous driving services in Europe, starting in Germany and the UK, is an important milestone in the global strategy of Apollo Go.

Notably, as early as July 15, Pony.ai announced the establishment of a strategic partnership with the ride-hailing service platform Uber. Pony.ai plans to integrate thousands of autonomous vehicles into Uber's global transportation network, providing accessible, stable, and reliable autonomous driving services to users around the world.

By the end of this year, both parties will initially deploy the sixth-generation autonomous vehicles of "Luobo Kuaipao" in Asian and Middle Eastern markets, with plans to gradually expand to more markets globally in the future. Once the service is launched, passengers can request the autonomous vehicles provided by "Luobo Kuaipao" through the Uber App.

Since the beginning of this year, Pony.ai has accelerated its global expansion, launching operations in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and other locations. Currently, Pony.ai has deployed over 1,000 autonomous vehicles worldwide, operating in 15 cities including Hong Kong, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi. It has provided more than 11 million rides for users globally, with a total safe driving mileage exceeding 170 million kilometers.

In addition to Luobo Kuaipao, autonomous driving companies such as Pony.ai and WeRide are also actively expanding into overseas markets. The reason behind this is that overseas policies and regulations for autonomous driving are about to make breakthroughs, and the global market is entering a period of prosperous development.

For example, the UK Department for Transport announced on July 21 that it is conducting a consultation on the licensing scheme for autonomous vehicle services, with the consultation period ending on September 28. The announcement stated that the key legal framework for regulating new autonomous vehicle passenger services has begun. According to the recent decision to accelerate pilot programs, the first autonomous taxi, private hire, and bus services will be launched on the roads starting from spring 2026.

The Year of Expansion: Facing the Global Confrontation of the "Three Powers"

Baidu founder Robin Li stated at the earnings report meeting in February this year that 2025 will be a significant year for the expansion of Apollo Go. The company will actively seek cooperation, including with mobile service operators, taxi companies, and third-party fleet operators.

According to Baidu's Q1 2025 financial report, Baidu's revenue for the first quarter was 32.5 billion yuan, with core revenue at 25.5 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year growth of 7%. Among them, the Robotaxi business "Luobo Kuaipao" achieved remarkable results: the order volume in the first quarter reached 1.4 million, a year-on-year increase of 75%. As of May 2025, Luobo Kuaipao has provided over 11 million rides worldwide cumulatively.

Globally, companies like Pony.ai, Waymo, and Tesla have been the most representative players in the Robotaxi space. The fact is that Robotaxi is not only a competition among enterprises but also a technological high ground contested by countries worldwide. As a pioneer and participant in taking Robotaxi from 0 to 1, Pony.ai's venture abroad will directly compete with global giants Waymo and Tesla, showcasing the capabilities of Chinese autonomous driving companies.

From a technical perspective, Waymo employs a "high-precision map + multi-sensor fusion" approach, building its own high-precision maps and developing its own cameras and LiDAR, resulting in overall high costs. It is reported that the cost of Waymo's fifth-generation vehicle is around $200,000. In contrast, Tesla uses a "no high-precision map + pure vision" approach.

After Luobo Kuaipao, the vehicle model that ventured overseas was the sixth-generation autonomous car. At Apollo Day 2024, the sixth-generation autonomous vehicle, Yichi 06, was released. This car was jointly developed by Baidu Apollo and Jiangling New Energy. Compared with the previous generation, the sixth-generation autonomous vehicle has reduced its cost by 60%, with a unit price of only 204,700 yuan.

Tesla officially launched its Robotaxi pilot service in Austin, USA, on June 22. Since then, it has been a scene of "Fast and Furious" in Austin: just 22 days after the initial launch, the service area expanded from 51 square kilometers to 109 square kilometers, surpassing Waymo's operating area in the region.

Waymo has also announced that it has applied to the New York City Department of Transportation for permission to use manually driven vehicles for mapping and testing. At the same time, Waymo is promoting changes to New York State law to enable the deployment of its fully autonomous vehicles.

In an internal speech at the quarterly executive meeting in July, Robin Li announced an adjustment to the Robotaxi autonomous taxi technology strategy. Li expressed that, compared to multi-sensor or vehicle-to-everything (V2X) approaches, he is now more optimistic about the pure vision approach. He believes that only by switching to the pure vision approach can Baidu's "Apollo Go" seize opportunities in the competition. Li emphasized that if Baidu does not quickly capture the market and refine its technology, it may lose the opportunity once companies like Tesla have matured their pure vision approach.

It is evident that in today's fiercely competitive environment, Luobo Kuaipao must ensure flawless performance in this competition. At the critical point where autonomous driving is entering large-scale industrial deployment, which party will ultimately emerge victorious?