Shanghai
Yes — you can ride a robotaxi in Shanghai.
Pony.ai, WeRide are live in Shanghai today.
Rules of the road here
Public service allowedThere's no single national robotaxi license — individual cities grant fully-driverless commercial permits (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chongqing). The city is the gatekeeper.
What you'd open to ride here
No single app shows all of them, so here they are side by side.
Fully-driverless permit for Pudong; rolling out, with plans to connect Pudong Airport (PVG) and Disney.
Holds a Pudong fully-driverless permit alongside Pony.ai.
Getting to and from the airport
Airports charge ride-hail a per-trip access fee, often on both the pickup and the dropoff. Robotaxis pay the same fee as Uber and Lyft — there's no separate robotaxi rate. What's different is access: each airport negotiates a phased agreement, so the cars are often sent to a set spot (a rental-car center or a train station) rather than the terminal curb.
No robotaxi serves this airport yet.
No robotaxi serves this airport yet.
Why robotaxis wait in one spot
Robotaxis don't circle the block between rides. With no passenger, a car pulls over and waits, repositions toward where the next ride is likely, or heads back to a depot to charge and get cleaned — all at fixed addresses. So a place you keep seeing them is usually a staging or charging spot, not somewhere you can be picked up.
It isn't always quiet. In 2024, Waymos packed into a small San Francisco lot started honking at each other overnight — a collision-avoidance feature misfiring in tight quarters — until Waymo pushed a fix. In Santa Monica, nightly charging noise pushed the city to order overnight operations to stop. If a spot near you is a problem, here's what actually works.
Seen them returning to the same spot?
Tell us where, or flag a spot you'd rather they didn't use. Reports are reviewed before anything shows publicly; an address you ask them to avoid stays private.
Can you make them stop coming?
Honestly: there's no official “remove my address” button — no company promises that. But two things genuinely move the needle. Tell the operator: they do adjust pickup, dropoff and staging spots (and a properly signed no-stopping or red curb is honored automatically). And report it to your city or regulator — neighborhood pressure is what forced changes in Santa Monica.
Report to the company
- Pony.ai
- WeRide
- WeRide contact ↗ — No dedicated rider-report line published; reporting is in-app.
Readiness score
How we score this →Two or more services compete here — that's what pushes it near the top.
Questions people actually ask about Shanghai
Can I ride a robotaxi in Shanghai?
Yes. Pony.ai, WeRide are running in Shanghai right now.
Which app do I open to ride in Shanghai?
Pony.ai (its own app); WeRide (its own app). No one app shows them all, which is why each is listed here.
Is there a robotaxi at Shanghai's airport?
Airport trips (PVG, SHA) depend on each company's permits and change often. Check the app for live service to PVG before you count on it.
Hear it first for Shanghai
We'll email you when a service turns on or widens its area here. Nothing else.