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Deployment

Didi Robotaxi at Guangzhou

Didi Autonomous Driving, the autonomous-vehicle subsidiary of the Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, is a distinct Level-4 robotaxi stack developer rather than a ride-hailing aggregator, and the one genuine missing active Chinese robotaxi operator beyond Baidu, Pony.ai, and WeRide. It launched a fully-driverless robotaxi service in Guangzhou's demonstration zone in December 2025 and reports more than 3,000 Level-4 test vehicles across eleven cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou with over 80 million cumulative kilometers, integrating its own stack into Didi's ride-hailing network in a captive structure paralleling the Waymo Driver. It raised a 2 billion yuan, roughly $281 million, Series D in October 2025 from GAC Group, Beijing funds, and Didi Group, for about $1.83 billion across seven rounds including the SoftBank Vision Fund, and runs a joint venture with GAC-Aion called Guangzhou Andi Technology with an R2 production model. The registry records it at early, zone-limited driverless commercial maturity. Several cap-flags apply: the paid-versus-free status of the December 2025 Guangzhou driverless service is not explicitly confirmed in sources and should be verified before asserting commercial-paid operation, the 3,000-vehicle, eleven-city, and 80-million-kilometer figures are company-reported test-fleet rather than commercial-revenue numbers, and the total-funding figure includes aggregator-derived round history. On the public-versus-private verification axis, unlike the NASDAQ-listed Pony.ai and WeRide whose SEC filings give stronger verification, Didi Autonomous Driving is a private subsidiary of Didi Chuxing, which delisted from the NYSE in 2021, so its robotaxi metrics carry the weaker private-company and Chinese-market-disclosure verification posture.

Didi Robotaxi by Didi Autonomous Driving · Operated by Didi Autonomous Driving · Catalog entry · 2 sources · not yet field-verified


Machine-readable surfaces

Footage

PRIMARY SOURCE
Courtesy of DiDi

DiDi Autonomous Driving footage of its robotaxi service beginning operation in Shanghai. Early DiDi robotaxi operations ran with safety operators aboard, not fully driverless.

On December 1, 2025, Didi Autonomous Driving launched a 24-hour, fully driverless robotaxi trial in Guangzhou's Huangpu district. Riders book through the Didi app, can change destinations mid-trip, and can trigger an emergency stop. The service area covers high-traffic nodes including subway stations, schools, and shopping centers in the designated demonstration zone.

The December 2025 launch followed years of supervised test operations and earlier permit grants in Guangzhou and Beijing. Didi Autonomous Driving (DiDi Chuxing's L4 AV subsidiary) integrates its own AV stack into DiDi's ride-hailing network. The company's joint venture with GAC-Aion, Guangzhou Andi Technology, is developing the R2 production vehicle targeted for broader commercial deployment.

Cap-flags: the paid-versus-free status of the trial is not confirmed in available sources; the service may be fare-free or invite-only during the trial period. The operational zone is a designated demonstration area, not city-wide service. Mileage and fleet-size metrics are company-reported without independent verification.

Key facts

Launch date
December 1, 2025
Zone
Guangzhou Huangpu district demonstration area
Service
24/7 fully driverless ride-hailing via Didi app
Supervision
No safety driver (fully driverless)
Production vehicle
GAC-Aion JV (Guangzhou Andi Technology) R2, targeted for scale
Trust tier
Catalog entry · 2 sources · not yet field-verified
Last updated
2026-06-12
Model
Didi Robotaxi
Company
Didi Autonomous Driving
Location
Guangzhou
Operator
Didi Autonomous Driving
Status
pilot
First seen
2025-12-01
ID
3c8d4089-e8d9-4d34-bd21-2794171dc0b6

Sources (2)

  1. Didi launches all-day fully driverless Robotaxi service in Guangzhou · https://technode.com/2025/12/02/didi-launches-all-day-fully-driverless-robotaxi-service-in-guangzhou/ · 2025-12-02
  2. Didi Autonomous Driving Launches 24/7 Fully Unmanned Robotaxi Trial in Guangzhou · https://pandaily.com/didi-autonomous-driving-launches-24-7-fully-unmanned-robotaxi-trial-in-guangzhou/
Methodology: Verified · 2 sources (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-06-12

Verification posture

Verified

Low confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-06-12

Maturity + lifecycle

Maturity stage: pilot

Lifecycle: active

Architectural position

Cohort: av

Sources by quality tier

2
unclassified
Unclassified source

The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.

Methodology surface for Didi Robotaxi at Guangzhou.

Common questions

What is the Didi Robotaxi deployment at Guangzhou?
Didi Robotaxi, built by Didi Autonomous Driving, is recorded as a deployment at Guangzhou on the DEPLOY registry. Didi Autonomous Driving operates the deployment directly.
Who operates Didi Robotaxi at Guangzhou?
Didi Autonomous Driving, the manufacturer of Didi Robotaxi, operates this deployment directly. This is a maker-deploys-its-own-product arrangement rather than a customer pilot.
When did the Didi Robotaxi deployment at Guangzhou go live?
The deployment is recorded as starting December 1, 2025 on the DEPLOY registry. Earlier activity may exist but is not yet sourced.
Have there been incidents at the Didi Robotaxi deployment at Guangzhou?
No active incidents affecting this deployment are recorded on the DEPLOY registry. Absence of recorded incidents is not a guarantee no incident occurred; DEPLOY records only sourced incidents and suppresses retracted ones.

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