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Uber to deploy Chinese driverless cars

Ride-hailing app’s tie-up with Chinese EV giant includes plans to offer trips in autonomous vehicles

Uber plans to deploy Chinese driverless cars on its service as part of a deal with BYD, the country’s biggest electric vehicle manufacturer.
BYD and Uber unveiled a “strategic partnership” on Wednesday under which Uber drivers will be offered preferential prices and financing rates to help them buy 100,000 of the Chinese company’s cars.
The two businesses also said they would work together on BYD’s autonomous cars being available on Uber in the future.
The tie-up will cover Uber’s operations in the UK, where the business has vowed to achieve zero emissions by 2030. 
The company has said it will be fully electric in London by the end of next year, the first city in the world where it has made the pledge.
However, it will not include the US, Uber’s biggest market, where President Joe Biden recently announced 100pc tariffs on Chinese electric cars.
BYD briefly surpassed Tesla as the world’s biggest electric car manufacturer by volume at the end of last year, and its sales are forecast to surpass Elon Musk’s company during 2024 as a whole.
Tesla has also been investing heavily in developing autonomous vehicle technology. 
Despite saying last year that fully driverless cars are “basically impossible”, the company has recently sought tie-ups with AI microchip company Nvidia to develop the technology.
Uber already offers autonomous rides through Waymo, the driverless car company owned by Google’s parent company, in Arizona.
Initially, BYD and Uber said the deal would accelerate electric car sales by offering discounts on vehicles, as well as financing, charging and maintenance.
Uber said its drivers are buying EVs at five times the rate of average motorists, but that prices remain a deterrent.
BYD sells some of the world’s cheapest electric cars, with its entry-level Seagull model costing slightly more than £8,000 in China. 
Cheap Chinese cars have raised concerns in the US where policymakers are introducing tariffs amid fears of domestic manufacturers being undercut.
Uber already offers US drivers discounts on Tesla cars but said the agreement with BYD was the “largest global agreement of its kind”.

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