- Chinese tech giant, Baidu ( NASDAQ: BIDU ) has secured the first permits in China to offer commercial fully driverless robotaxi services to the public on open roads.
- Apollo Go, Baidu's autonomous ride-hailing service, is now authorized to collect fares for robotaxi rides - completely without human drivers in the car - in Chongqing and Wuhan, two of China's largest megacities.
- This comes few months after the company scored a permit to provide driverless ride-hailing services to the public on open roads in Beijing.
- “This is a tremendous qualitative change,” said Wei Dong, vice president and chief safety operation officer of Baidu’s Intelligent Driving Group, in a statement. “We believe these permits are a key milestone on the path to the inflection point when the industry can finally roll out fully autonomous driving services at scale.”
- In Wuhan, robotaxi service will operate from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m and cover a 13 square kilometer area in the city’s Economic and Technological Development zone, which is known as China’s ‘Auto City.’ Chongqing’s service will run from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in a 30 square kilometer area in Yongchuan District.
- Each city will have a fleet of five Apollo 5th generation robotaxis, according to Baidu.
- Last month, the company revealed the designs for its sixth generation electric robotaxi, the Apollo RT6 EV .
- Apollo Go also has a presence in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Changsha, Cangzhou, Yangquan and Wuzhen.
- By the end of 2022, the company expects to add another 300 Apollo 5th gen robotaxis to its existing fleet and plans to expand its ride-hailing service to 65 cities by 2025 and 100 cities by 2030.
- Read the most recent analysis on the stock here .
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Baidu secures China's first-ever permits for commercial fully driverless robotaxi services