Baidu Inc (百度) has won approval to deploy the first fully autonomous self-driving taxis on China’s roads, giving it an edge over rivals such as Pony.ai Inc (小馬智行) and XPeng Inc (小鵬汽車).
The tech giant has secured permits to operate robotaxis in Wuhan and Chongqing, it said in a statement yesterday.
The move marks a relaxation of Chinese rules, which previously mandated someone must be in the vehicle to take control in case of an emergency.
Photo: Reuters
Baidu is to begin to provide fully driverless robotaxi services in designated areas in Wuhan between 9am to 5pm, and Chongqing from 9:30am to 4:30pm, with five Apollo fifth-generation robotaxis operating in each city. The service area covers 13km2 in the Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone, and 30km2 in Chongqing’s Yongchuan District.
Baidu is working with regulators in Beijing and Guangzhou to obtain similar permits, Baidu Intelligence Driving Group vice president Wei Dong (魏東) said.
“It’s as if we’ve landed on the moon and built a base there,” he said in a video interview. “It’s just a matter of time for us to go to Mars or even beyond our solar system.”
In the US, Cruise LLC in June won a license to charge for fully driverless rides in selected areas in San Francisco, but the General Motors Co-backed start-up is now facing regulatory scrutiny after two on-road incidents, including an accident that left two people with minor injuries.
In China, Baidu and self-driving start-up Pony.ai earlier this year received approval from local regulators to deploy vehicles without someone in the driver’s seat in part of Beijing.
Baidu, which operated China’s largest search engine, is transitioning to artificial intelligence and self-driving vehicles after its core advertising revenue shrank in the mobile era.
Its smart-driving business provides software to automakers such as Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd (吉利汽車) and runs a ride-hailing app powered by a fleet of self-driving vehicles in major cities, including Beijing and Shanghai.
Baidu last month unveiled a new version of its robotaxi, called the Apollo RT6, that it sad costs nearly 50 percent less to make than its previous model.
The company plans to double the number of robotaxis it has on Chinese roads to 600 by the end of this year, Wei said.
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