Baidu launches robotaxi services in Beijing as China accelerates along the road to a self-driving future

Chinese internet giant Baidu launched a public robotaxi service in Beijing on Thursday as the country accelerates the commercial application of self-driving technologies across the country.

Beijing is the third city after Changsha in Hunan province and Cangzhou in Hebei province in which Baidu has rolled out a robotaxi service – in this instance a self-driving car with a safety driver – which can be hailed via its e-hailing platform.

Baidu’s Apollo Go Robotaxi service has a fleet of 40 cars covering a road network of about 700 kilometres in Beijing. It has nearly 100 pickup and drop-off stations in residential and business areas in Yizhuang, Haidian, and Shunyi districts. People in the city can use the service after registering on Baidu Maps or the Apollo website.

“Baidu Apollo will continue pushing for the commercial application of autonomous driving,” said Zhenyu Li, general manager of Baidu’s Intelligent Driving Group. “We will contribute more to the development of autonomous driving and smart transportation in Beijing and support the city to become a world-leading AI innovation hub.”

Robotaxis are seen as one of best ways to make money from autonomous driving technologies in the near future. Major self-driving companies, including Baidu, ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, start-ups WeRide and AutoX have all launched robotaxi services in different cities across the country.

Guangzhou-based WeRide said on Thursday that its self-driving cars can now cruise safely not only in cities but also in highly-populated villages, where many people live due to urban sprawl. Its publicly accessible Robotaxi service in the southern Chinese city has operated for over 200 days with zero accidents since November.