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Baidu becomes the first mainland company to operate completely driverless cabs on open roads. Photo: SCMP Pictures.

Baidu launches China’s first driverless taxi services in Chongqing and Wuhan in landmark moment for autonomous motoring

  • The search and AI giant was granted licences to put the completely unmanned cabs into service on Monday
  • The groundbreaking decision gives it the upper hand in a fierce competition among EV start-ups to commercialise autonomous driving technology

Fully driverless taxis will take to the roads of Chongqing and Wuhan on Monday in a landmark moment for the future of mobility in mainland China.

Baidu, China’s biggest search engine and artificial intelligence firm, has been given the green light to launch the unmanned taxi services, giving it the upper hand in a fierce competition among smart electric vehicle (EV) start-ups to commercialise autonomous driving technology.
The company said the licences granted to its Apollo Go autonomous ride-hailing service to offer robotaxi rides without human drivers present, marked “a key turning point” for the future of mobility in China.

It becomes the first mainland company to operate completely driverless cabs on open roads.

“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,” said Wei Dong, chief safety operation officer of Baidu’s intelligent driving group.
Unlike its robotaxis launched in Beijing in April, the 10 autonomous cabs to be let loose on the roads next week will not have a human “security officer” behind the wheel in case of emergency. The move to grant the licences reflects Chinese regulators’ confidence in the technology.

“Chinese authorities are normally very conservative and they are [often] not willing to give the green light to technological innovations and innovative products,” said Cao Hua, a partner at private equity firm Unity Asset Management. “The driverless taxis must have proved to be very safe before they could secure the regulatory permits.”

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Automated taxis now allowed on the road in Shenzhen

Automated taxis now allowed on the road in Shenzhen

Baidu said it will deploy five robotaxis in each of the two cities from Monday.

In the southwestern city of Chongqing – China’s largest metropolis, with some 30 million residents – the robotaxis will be picking up passengers from 9:30am to 4:30pm. The autonomous cabs will operate from 9am to 5pm in Wuhan, the capital of central China’s Hubei province.

The service areas will cover 30 square kilometres in Chongqing’s Yongchuan District and 13 square kilometres in the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone.

Baidu launched Apollo, the world’s largest open-source autonomous driving platform, in 2017. Aside from the robotaxi business, it is also ramping up development and production of smart EVs for household use to tap an accelerated pace of electrification on the roads of mainland China.

Its carmaking arm, Jidu, plans to start assembling its first mass production model next year, joining the fray against global electric car leader Tesla and a clutch of mainland rivals including Nio, XPeng and Li Auto.

The company announced at the beginning of this year that its first model would have level 4 (L4) autonomous driving capability, indicating cars that do not require human intervention in most circumstances.

Most of the intelligent vehicles on the mainland’s roads are classified as level 2 (L2) or L2+, which require human override and stipulate the driver must be alert and ready to take control, according to a classification system published by the standardisation body SAE International.

A passenger taking an Apollo Go taxi in a designated 60 sq km area in Beijing pays just a few yuan per ride as Baidu offers huge discounts to promote its driverless ride-hailing service. A conventional taxi in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai costs more than 2 yuan per km on average.

In a groundbreaking move in January, US regulators allowed self-driving company Cruise to offer paid, fully driverless rides in select streets in San Francisco.

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