"China’s southern technology hub of Shenzhen is paving the way for the rollout of self-driving vehicles, a move that puts it at the forefront of the march to automation but is set to anger hundreds of thousands of hard-pressed taxi drivers.

The rules, which will allow the government to permit robotaxis from July 1, stand to threaten an army of taxi and ride-hailing drivers in one of China’s biggest cities, many of whom have already been displaced by automation and offshoring from the factories that powered the country’s breakneck economic growth."