Uber and China's BYD agree deal to roll out 100,000 EV fleet
- Reference: 1722520928
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/08/01/uber_byd_deal/
- Source link:
According to the [1]announcement , the deal is expected to give drivers on the Uber platform access to cheaper EVs and bring down their total cost of ownership.
However, slightly worryingly for those same drivers are plans for the two companies to collaborate on autonomous-capable vehicles deployed on the Uber platform in the future.
[2]
The announcement also noted that Uber drivers were going electric at five times the rate of private car owners, but driver surveys had shown the price of EVs and the availability of financing as blockers. Charging is also a problem, particularly considering the [3]state of infrastructure in countries such as the UK.
[4]
[5]
"To support drivers going electric, the companies' joint efforts may also include discounts on charging, vehicle maintenance, or insurance, as well as financing and lease offers, based on what works best for drivers in a given market."
The deal might also face scrutiny from the authorities. US tariffs on Chinese EVs [6]stand at 100 percent , although BYD faces a lower hurdle in the EU, where tariffs [7]are set to be 17.4 percent .
[8]
The Register contacted the European Commission for its thoughts on the deal and will update this piece should a response be forthcoming.
BYD was recently given the go-ahead by Chinese authorities to start trialing level three autonomous vehicles on public roads and has announced plans to build a $1 billion car factory in Turkey. [9]According to reports , the plant will have an annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles.
Building EVs in Turkey, which is part of the EU's Customs Union, should allow BYD to dodge those tariffs.
[10]Mozilla follows Google in losing trust in Entrust's TLS certificates
[11]Ridesharing makes new and unique mess in Japan's taxi industry
[12]Tesla delays 'Robotaxi' event as Musk 'makes' design 'tweaks'
[13]'One Less Car' Uber bets a grand you'll ditch your wheels
The deal is a blow to BYD arch-rival Tesla, which recently [14]delayed the unveiling of its robotaxi after boss Elon Musk decided to make some tweaks to the design. In a rare moment of introspection, Musk said of unsupervised Full Self-Driving: "My predictions on this have been overly optimistic in the past."
Tesla [15]reported mostly flat revenues in its most recent filing, prompting some investors to worry that the company's core car business was coming under pressure. Musk, however, pointed to discounting from competitors, including BYD, as a factor making life difficult for the EV maker.
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Stella Li, executive vice president of BYD and CEO of BYD Americas, said: "This collaboration marks a new era in the electrification of urban mobility, and we look forward to seeing our cutting-edge EVs become a common sight on the streets of cities worldwide." ®
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[1] https://investor.uber.com/news-events/news/press-release-details/2024/Uber-and-BYD-Partner-to-Accelerate-Global-EV-Transition/default.aspx
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZquxJ@w@hKS-jz6zf6va6QAAAAE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/05/uk_cma_ev_charging/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZquxJ@w@hKS-jz6zf6va6QAAAAE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZquxJ@w@hKS-jz6zf6va6QAAAAE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/13/chinese_ev_tariffs/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/13/china_eu_ev_tariffs/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZquxJ@w@hKS-jz6zf6va6QAAAAE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/china-ev-maker-byd-build-1-bln-plant-turkey-2024-07-08/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/01/mozilla_entrust/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/31/ride_hailing_japan_accusation/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/16/tesla_robotaxi_event_has_been/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/27/uber_one_less_car/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/16/tesla_robotaxi_event_has_been/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/24/tesla_q2_2024/
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZquxJ@w@hKS-jz6zf6va6QAAAAE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Lets see if this cannot be dodged with Uber being the front decoration and officially handling all the data in country. Much like microsofts alleged "eu-only cloud" which is officially supposed to not copy everything over to the US.
All in all, its good to see some competition going on. Electroimmobility has already enough technical issues, theres no need to add monopoly pricing to those things and considering quality, its a blessing if tesla isnt the sole purveyor of self driving explosive devices. Charging however, will stay the main bottleneck and the main reason why electroimmobility isnt useable in too many places.
You're daft if you think BYD's cars are any better than Tesla. Mainland Chinese prefer buying Teslas over BYD's refuse for a reason. They are built to low standards and have a myriad of questionable design decisions. Five minutes of research will show you this.
I am not at all excusing Tesla's shoddy QC, staffing, or their very own questionable design decisions, mind you. But I'd rather be in a Tesla anything than a BYD anything, by a wide margin.
People in China will buy a Tesla because it is a status symbol, not because it is better than any home grown vehicle.
Despite what is talked about the Chinese vehicles are now very good, whether ICE or EV. The Chinese are very good at chipping away until what they have is just as good quality, if not better than Western products. They think long term.
Why do you think most of the electric busses in the UK are Yutong?
Equally why are we totally screwing up UK companies who can economically convert existing ICE buses to EV over buying new Chinese?
You would think having what equates to spy vans driving around on the streets, vans replete with multiple camera and microphone arrays, would be a call for worry. Especially since BYD is as much in the CCP's pocket as Huawei is. And if they're self-driving, who's to say a "BYD representative" could tell it to drive to any location? Let's call it a "bug" that it drove into a secure government facility. Yes, we "accidentally" recorded classified information, and we "promise" to delete it.
"our cutting-edge EVs become a common sight on the streets of cities worldwide"
Until the TLAs decide that having Chinese controlled autonomous vehicles on said streets is a national security issue.
If we can't risk allowing them to route phone calls there is no way we can allow them to route MPs' taxis.
It is the logical progression of current policy.