TAKE ME IN BEIJING That argument felt more relevant in Beijing than ever.


Because if vehicles become interchangeable software-driven assets, value may migrate away from vehicle brands and toward the operating systems, market-places and mobility platforms sitting above them.


That is a profound shift.


Ironically, robotaxis may strengthen that argument. Because autonomous vehicles still need routing, demand aggregation, customer service, local compliance and brand trust.


Mobility as infrastructure.


For anyone in taxi, private hire or ride aggregation, that should command attention.


Because if robotaxis scale - and China increasingly looks serious about it - the question isn’t whether they affect our industry, but how local operators position themselves alongside them.


That may be as aggregators.


It may be through hybrid networks where human- driven fleets and autonomous vehicles coexist.


Or perhaps through something closer to what companies such as TakeMe - through its digital software arm, Moova - have long argued: local fleet networks, unified digitally, becoming the trusted layer above


increasingly commoditised transport hardware.


Someone has to orchestrate the network. And perhaps that is why the show felt so significant.


Not because China is merely ahead in electric vehicles - though it plainly is.


But because China increasingly appears to be designing for the world after the driver.


Walking those 17 halls, surrounded by 252 launches, I found myself thinking less about which car might come to Britain…


…and more about whether Europe has fully grasped that the future may belong less to car manufacturers and instead more ecosystems.


to software-led mobility


Beijing suggests that in many respects China is already operating in that future.


And that may be the biggest lesson of all. PHTM MAY 2026 11


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