Apollo Go, the robotaxi business of Chinese technology giant Baidu, has received the first ever permit to provide driverless ride-hailing services in Beijing, a city with a population of over 21 million people.
It is also the first time in the world that a fully driverless fleet has been deployed in the capital city of any country, and expands Apollo Go’s operations across three Chinese megacities – Beijing, Wuhan, and Chongqing.
The permit allows Baidu Apollo to deploy 10 fully driverless vehicles in Beijing’s Yizhuang Economic Development Zone. Each vehicle completes on average 20+ rides per day within the region.
The Yizhuang Economic Development Zone already hosts a 60 square kilometres area, and Beijing is looking to expand this to 500 square kilometres, and may possibly allow the trial area to include the nearby airport.
Baidu’s autonomous driving technology has been in the works since 2018 and has so far accumulated over 50 million kilometres in testing of Level 4 autonomous driving.
In addition to its technological expertise – backed by over 4,600 patent families for autonomous driving technology – Apollo Go also continues to hit milestones, such as providing 561,000 rides to the public in the fourth quarter of 2022, an increase of 162% over the same period a year earlier.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.