(April 1): Singapore’s Grab Holdings Ltd became Southeast Asia’s first ride provider to start a driverless service, betting the technology can help cut costs and prove out robotaxis in dense urban traffic.
The company and its partner, Chinese robotaxi operator WeRide Inc, are starting a very limited autonomous-car service along two approved routes with multiple possible stops in the city-state’s Punggol neighbourhood on Wednesday. An 11-vehicle fleet is designed to ferry residents to nearby amenities and transport links.
The public launch follows months of testing and data collection. The fleet has carried more than 1,000 riders and logged more than 30,000km of autonomous mileage since the effort began in September.
The robotaxi rollout is part of Grab’s effort to prove to investors it can be sustainably profitable in the long term. The regional ride-hailing and delivery market leader, backed by Uber Technologies Inc, is facing intense competition from rivals such as Indonesia’s GoTo Group that’s kept profit margins thin.
While peers in the US and China have already offered driverless rides for a few years, Grab has only recently stepped up its investment in the technology in a bet it’ll yield cost savings in the long run. The company invested in US-based May Mobility Inc in October and in remote-driving firm Vay in November, and took a stake in China’s Momenta in December. Grab and Uber both are backers of WeRide.
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US counterparts Uber and Lyft Inc have similarly partnered with technology providers and fleet operators for global deployments, while positioning themselves as platforms that can efficiently inform where robotaxis should be placed to keep them busy.
Grab’s nascent venture into autonomous vehicles is unlikely to contribute materially to its top and bottom lines in the foreseeable future, but it is set to bolster the value of its app ecosystem to users, Bloomberg Intelligence said in a report in November. “It’s a solid pillar of the company’s user retention strategy and should strengthen Grab’s competitive position against rivals like GoTo,” it said.
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