DEPLOYDatabase

Robot model

AutoX RoboTaxi

AutoX (founded in August 2016 by Jianxiong Xiao, known as Professor X, a former Princeton assistant professor; based in Shenzhen and California and backed by…

Track AutoX RoboTaxi
Manufacturer
AutoX
Form factor
av
Maturity
commercial
Lifecycle
discontinued
Deployments
1
Website
home.autox.ai ↗

discontinuedDiscontinued. The product or service is no longer actively pursued by the maker.

Overview

AutoX (founded in August 2016 by Jianxiong Xiao, known as Professor X, a former Princeton assistant professor; based in Shenzhen and California and backed by Alibaba and Dongfeng Motor Group) was an early Chinese robotaxi leader and the second company in the world to run a public fully-driverless robotaxi service, in Shenzhen in 2021, holding driverless permits across six cities and opening a San Francisco operations center in 2022. The registry records it at commercial maturity to reflect that historical peak, with a discontinued lifecycle state: AutoX has wound down its China robotaxi operations entirely, with China operations divested, offices closed, and the brand discontinued, while the founder pivoted the company into a Silicon Valley personal-robocar startup called Tensor with no active China presence, so it is not a currently-operating robotaxi service. This follows the active-retired split, with maturity reflecting the historical commercial peak and lifecycle reflecting the wind-down. The frequently cited 2021 claim of a fleet of more than a thousand vehicles, the largest in China, is stale and self-reported and does not reflect 2026 reality, the roughly $267 million total-funding figure is an aggregator number rather than primary-sourced, the exact wind-down date is unconfirmed with the company having gone quiet around 2022 to 2023 and completing the wind-down around 2024 to 2025, and Tensor's planned second-half-2026 consumer-robocar launch is a forward-looking claim rather than a shipped product.

Verified vs. claimed

Maturity stage
commercial(Commercially deployed with revenue-generating operations.)
Verified deployments
1 deployment on file
Sources on file
5 sources, view all

Key facts

Autonomy level

L4 autonomous

Form factor

Autonomous robotaxi (remotely-supervised L4)

Operating cities

Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and CA Silicon Valley testing

Total funding

Approximately $267 million (Tracxn aggregator figure)

Lifecycle state

Discontinued (China operations wound down)

Specs

Notes

Verified (historical peak): AutoX (founded 2016; founder Jianxiong Xiao; Alibaba + Dongfeng-backed) was the 2nd company worldwide to run a public fully-driverless robotaxi service (Shenzhen, 2021), with driverless permits across 6 cities and an SF operations center (2022). maturityStage=commercial (historical peak)., CURRENT STATUS: discontinued (wound down -> Tensor): AutoX has WOUND DOWN its China robotaxi operations entirely: China ops divested, offices closed, the AutoX brand discontinued. The founder pivoted the company into a Silicon Valley personal-robocar startup, Tensor, with no active China presence. It is NOT a currently-operating robotaxi service. lifecycleState=discontinued (active/retired split: maturity reflects the historical commercial peak, lifecycle reflects the wind-down)., CAP-FLAG (stale numbers): The 2021 '~1,000+ vehicle fleet / largest in China' claim is STALE (self-reported, ~2021) and does NOT reflect 2026 reality - do not carry forward as current. ~$267M total funding is a Tracxn aggregator figure (not primary). Exact wind-down date is unconfirmed (profile went quiet ~2022-2023; completed ~2024-2025). Tensor's H2-2026 consumer-robocar launch is a forward-looking claim, not a shipped product.

Specs

AutoX RoboTaxi: L4 autonomous robotaxi operated in Shenzhen (and permitted in Beijing/Shanghai/Guangzhou/Hangzhou + CA Silicon Valley testing). Founded Aug 2016 (founder Jianxiong Xiao, 'Professor X'; ex-Princeton); Shenzhen + California; backed by Alibaba + Dongfeng Motor Group.

Drive mode

remotely-supervised

Form Factor

av (autonomous robotaxi; remotely-supervised L4; DISCONTINUED China operations)

Autonomy level

L4 autonomous

Data & sources

Press releases

1

News coverage

2

Web sources

2

5 sources backing this record.View all →

Availability and pricing

Availability
Discontinued
Price
Not publicly disclosed
Units in field
Not disclosed
Sales model
Not disclosed
Lead time
Not disclosed

Pricing

No verified price is on record for AutoX RoboTaxi. Physical-AI systems are often sold through enterprise contracts or operated as a service rather than at a public list price.

How DEPLOY tracks pricing

Deployments (1)

  • AutoX RoboTaxi at Shenzhenoperational

    AutoX launched fully driverless robotaxi service in Shenzhen, with operations beginning around December 2020.

Recent activity

Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.

Full change history →

Supply chain (2)

Compute / semiconductor

  • NVIDIANVIDIA DRIVE Ampere-architecture GPU (dual, 900 TOPS each / 1,800 TOPS total; AutoX Gen5 AV platform; AutoX CEO Jianxiong Xiao quoted in NVIDIA bilateral press 2021-07-12)supplies

Sensors

  • onsemionsemi AR0820AT 8MP CMOS image sensors (28x) + SiPM-based LiDAR receiver arrays (4x); AutoX Gen5 360-degree vision; joint bilateral press release 2021-07-14; onsemi SVP and AutoX CEO quotedsupplies

Suppliers appear here when verified with at least two strong sources (maker-official / IR / regulatory / standards-body / verified tier-2). Sources are append-only; corrections add new sources rather than rewrite history.

Safety record

No incidents on record for AutoX RoboTaxi.

Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Sources (5)

  1. https://www.therobotreport.com/autox-shenzhen-robotaxi-service-opens-to-public/
  2. https://www.techbuzz.ai/articles/tensor-claims-first-consumer-robocar-launch-but-it-s-really-autox
  3. https://carbuzz.com/chinese-level-4-robotaxi-startup-tensor-autox/
  4. https://www.therobotreport.com/rbr50-company-2021/autox/
  5. https://home.autox.ai/en/technology.html

Common questions

What is AutoX RoboTaxi?
AutoX (founded in August 2016 by Jianxiong Xiao, known as Professor X, a former Princeton assistant professor; based in Shenzhen and California and backed by Alibaba and Dongfeng Motor Group) was an early Chinese robotaxi leader and the second company in the world to run a public fully-driverless robotaxi service, in Shenzhen in 2021, holding driverless permits across six cities and opening a San Francisco operations center in 2022. The registry records it at commercial maturity to reflect that historical peak, with a discontinued lifecycle state: AutoX has wound down its China robotaxi operations entirely, with China operations divested, offices closed, and the brand discontinued, while the founder pivoted the company into a Silicon Valley personal-robocar startup called Tensor with no active China presence, so it is not a currently-operating robotaxi service. This follows the active-retired split, with maturity reflecting the historical commercial peak and lifecycle reflecting the wind-down. The frequently cited 2021 claim of a fleet of more than a thousand vehicles, the largest in China, is stale and self-reported and does not reflect 2026 reality, the roughly $267 million total-funding figure is an aggregator number rather than primary-sourced, the exact wind-down date is unconfirmed with the company having gone quiet around 2022 to 2023 and completing the wind-down around 2024 to 2025, and Tensor's planned second-half-2026 consumer-robocar launch is a forward-looking claim rather than a shipped product.
How much does AutoX RoboTaxi cost?
AutoX RoboTaxi's price is not publicly disclosed. DEPLOY has no verified price on record for AutoX RoboTaxi from AutoX. Physical-AI systems like this are often sold through enterprise contracts or operated as a service rather than at a public list price; check the manufacturer for the latest.
Is AutoX RoboTaxi actually deployed in the real world?
Yes. AutoX RoboTaxi is independently verified in real-world operation on the DEPLOY registry, confirmed at named deployment sites with primary sources: not a concept, render, or demo-only.
Is AutoX RoboTaxi autonomous or teleoperated?
Yes. DEPLOY independently verifies AutoX RoboTaxi performing Transports passengers autonomously, with no human in the loop.
Who makes AutoX RoboTaxi?
AutoX RoboTaxi is made by AutoX, based in Shenzhen, China, founded in 2016.
Methodology: Verified · 5 sources (1 primary) · last reviewed 2026-07-12

Verification posture

Verified

High confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-07-12

Maturity + lifecycle

Maturity stage: commercial

Lifecycle: discontinued

Architectural position

Cohort: av

Sources by quality tier

2
secondary-trade-publication
Trade publication
2
unclassified
Unclassified source
1
primary-company-ir
Company IR disclosure

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

Methodology surface for AutoX RoboTaxi.

Recent coverage

AutoX RoboTaxi in third-party press

AutoX: Funding, Team & Investors

Jan 1, 2025

AutoX’s RoboTaxis allowed for unmanned passenger transport service in Shanghai - Gasgoo

Jul 8, 2024

China’s robotaxis charged ahead in 2021 - TechCrunch

Jan 14, 2022