Self-driving cars are having a moment. In the U.S., they're rolling around San Francisco. In China, Baidu's Apollo Go has been running fully driverless rides in parts of Beijing since mid-2022. Now Shanghai has joined the club -- kind of.
The trial is limited to a quiet patch of Jiading District, far from the chaos of the city center. You can't hail one from your doorstep. The app assigns you fixed pick-up and drop-off points. And unless you live in the area, it's a destination in itself. But the cars are real, they're on the road, and we rode in one. Unlike other outlets that just regurgitated the press release, we actually went out to see what it's like.
What You're Getting Into
The car we tested was one of Baidu's Apollo RT6s. On the roof: a small jungle of sensors, cameras, and LiDAR domes. On the back bumper: a warning to other drivers that this thing is driving itself (sort of—more on that in a bit).
There's no driver; passengers sit in the rear only; the front seats are blocked off, so you can't mess with the controls. In this trial, it's limited to 3 passengers and you can't use the trunk.
Booking is done through the Apollo Go WeChat Mini Program. It's straightforward: choose a route, walk to the assigned location, and wait. Ours arrived within five minutes on a weekday afternoon. A keypad next to the rear door asks for the last four digits of your phone number to unlock the car.
Inside: quiet, clean, and ... sterile. The front seats are roped off with a privacy panel, and the dashboard has been replaced with a screen in the back where you can adjust the aircon or connect your music app. That's it. No driver, no conversation. Just you, the algorithm, and a voice assistant telling you when to buckle up. There's also an SOS button on the screen in case something goes wrong.
How Scary Is It
The first few minutes are strange. The wheel turns by itself. The car pulls into traffic. You find yourself watching every brake and lane change with a little more scrutiny than usual.
But it handles itself well. Our ride cruised steadily around 50 km/h, took wide turns, and braked early. It never jerked or hesitated. No panic stops. No near-misses. It behaved like a very cautious, very polite driver -- though it helped that there wasn't much traffic to navigate. Jiading's suburban roads are ideal test conditions. No pedestrians darting across the street. No scooters zipping between lanes. No buses blocking your exit.
In short: it was smooth, but this isn't real Shanghai driving. It's the self-driving equivalent of training wheels.
So, Should You Try It?
Honestly, yeah. It's free for now, and worth the short trip to Jiading if you want to glimpse the future -- albeit in beta mode. Just don't expect sci-fi. Or downtown routes. Or human drama. This isn't a Black Mirror episode. It's more like a slightly awkward test run of something that's still learning to walk.
But we rode in it. And it worked.
