Tesla chases robotaxi rivals and China goes local for auto chips

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 US tech giant laid out an ambitious plan to define what search will look like in the future.

Some users in the US may have already seen the rollout 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 back seat of a Waymo car in San Francisco, where I’ll be meeting a robotics start-up 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 US EV giant to see if Elon Musk can deliver on the vision he promised last year.

But the US EV giant might already be falling behind its US 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 1.4mn 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 US 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 $35bn merger between US 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 US 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 US-China trade tensions escalate, with recent US 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 January 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 per cent 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 US. The project to transition to 100 per cent 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 per cent 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 per cent homemade chips this year.

Nuclear heats up

With the rising energy demand driven by AI and data centres, 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 UK 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 under-secretary of state at the UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, are set to sign a memorandum of co-operation in London on Thursday. The partnership will combine the UK’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 co-operation.

Suggested reads

1. Huawei and ZTE take AI to Belt and Road, shrugging off US sanctions (Nikkei Asia)

2. Nintendo switches up the rules of console gaming (FT)

3. Tourist-crowded Japan turns to apps to combat guide shortages (Nikkei Asia)

4. Donald Trump plans to delay TikTok ban for a third time (FT)

5. ‘Asian minds’ should seek coexistence with superhuman AI: scholar (Nikkei Asia)

6. Chinese brands extend global reach (FT)

7. TikTok to launch shopping feature in Japan, taking on Amazon, Rakuten (Nikkei Asia)

8. Chinese carmaker Xpeng develops advanced chips for VW cars (FT)

9. Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ threatens to pull plug on China solar players (Nikkei Asia)

10. Olympic product placement: ‘I can’t just give out 17,000 phones. It needs to return value’ (FT)

#techAsia is co-ordinated by Nikkei Asia’s Katherine Creel in Tokyo, with assistance from the FT tech desk in London. 

Sign up here at Nikkei Asia to receive #techAsia each week. The editorial team can be reached at techasia@nex.nikkei.co.jp