Inside Geely’s Eva Cab: A Robotaxi Built From the Ground Up
Geely’s Eva Cab represents a bold step in autonomous taxi technology, designed specifically for driverless ride-hailing rather than adapted from an existing passenger car. Unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show, the vehicle dispenses with a steering wheel, pedals, and even a front passenger seat, freeing up space for an open, lounge-like cabin. Passengers access the interior via wide electric sliding doors, which create a large aperture for easy entry and exit, crucial for high-turnover fleets. The minimalist doors omit storage pockets to reduce the risk of forgotten belongings. Under the skin, Eva Cab is engineered for large-scale operations, with support for fully automated battery swapping and automatic cleaning, two key enablers for keeping self-driving cars on the road for longer hours. Jointly developed with Afari Technology and ride-hailing arm CaoCao Mobility, Eva Cab is slated for production and active service starting next year, with larger deployments planned in the following years.
Level 4 Ambition: The Tech Stack Behind the Geely Robotaxi
Beyond its radical packaging, Eva Cab’s main promise lies in its autonomous driving hardware and software. Geely’s robotaxi uses up to 43 perception components, including LiDAR and high-definition cameras, to identify pedestrians, vehicles and obstacles in complex environments. Its computing platform can reach 1,400 TOPS, with an interference speed of 350 TPS, which Geely claims delivers decision-making three times faster than a human driver. At the software level, the vehicle relies on a 196-billion-parameter Step 3.5 large model and H9 solutions designed to handle 99% of everyday travel scenarios, from dense urban traffic to unmarked rural roads. A World Action Model (WAM) sits at the core of the system, aiming to mimic the judgment of an experienced human driver. Inside, an interactive AI bot with digital eyes adds a user-facing layer to the system, potentially improving passenger trust and comfort in fully self-driving cars.
How Eva Cab Compares to Other Self-Driving Cars and Robotaxis
While Geely markets Eva Cab as China’s first purpose-built robotaxi, the claim is contested. Baidu’s Apollo RT6, launched in 2022, also targets Level 4 ride-hailing and was similarly conceived for autonomous use, even if it looks more conventional. By contrast, Eva Cab’s design is unapologetically futuristic, drawing comparisons to the quirky Fiat Multipla with its unusually high-set headlights positioned just below the windshield. Outside China, major players like Waymo generally rely on repurposed passenger EVs rather than clean-sheet robotaxi platforms, and Tesla’s approach centers on software-first autonomy layered onto standard vehicles. Eva Cab therefore stands out for its integration of hardware, software and operations from day one. However, it faces the same core challenge as other autonomous taxi technology efforts: achieving reliable, scalable Level 4 performance in messy real-world conditions while maintaining safety, uptime and regulatory compliance across diverse cities and use cases.
Scaling Up: Geely’s Deployment Plan and the Road to 2030
For Geely, the true test of Eva Cab will be deployment at scale rather than concept-stage innovation. The company plans to begin production and active service next year in partnership with Afari Technology and ride-hailing platform CaoCao Mobility, with mass production and broader operations targeted from 2027. Reuters reporting cited by Geely’s partners indicates CaoCao wants 100,000 Eva Cabs in its fleet by 2030, an ambitious number for any self-driving car initiative. Initial rollouts are expected in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, and five major Chinese cities, reflecting a strategy that blends domestic and overseas markets. Yet building a robotaxi is arguably the easy part; running thousands of units safely and profitably, 24/7, is far harder. Fleet management, maintenance, battery swapping infrastructure, and public acceptance will all determine whether Eva Cab becomes a cornerstone of future mobility or remains a niche experiment in autonomous taxi technology.
Future Prospects: Can Purpose-Built Robotaxis Reshape Global Mobility?
If Geely’s Eva Cab delivers on its promises, it could accelerate a shift toward purpose-built robotaxis as the default architecture for autonomous ride-hailing. In China, dense urban centers and strong policy support for intelligent transport offer fertile ground for rapid deployment, particularly for a vertically integrated automaker with its own mobility platform. Internationally, launches in markets like Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong will test how exportable Geely’s model is, both technologically and regulatorily. Purpose-built robotaxis can optimize space, durability and operating cost, but they require significant upfront investment and robust safety records to gain public trust. As more cities explore self-driving cars to cut congestion and emissions, Eva Cab may serve as a template: a highly specialized, networked vehicle rather than a private car with added autonomy. The coming decade will reveal whether this approach scales better than repurposed vehicles in the evolving autonomous taxi technology landscape.