Baidu has the first licenses for fully autonomous ‘robotaxis’ in China

Beijing 8 Aug : Chinese Internet giant Baidu on Monday announced that it will soon offer driverless taxis in Chongqing and Wuhan cities with its ride-hailing system that is autonomous, known as Apollo Go, becoming the first company in the country to introduce autonomous driving.

Baidu has obtained permits to provide a driverless robotaxi service to commercial customers, with no human driver in the vehicle as reported by TechCrunch.Baidu has also obtained an authorization to operate driverless vehicles on public roads in Beijing however the permit still requires a human driver in the front seat.

It is the first time that an autonomous vehicle company can provide a completely driverless ride-hailing services in China in Wuhan and Chongqing cities "This is a significant qualitative shift.We believe that these permits are a crucial step in the road to the point at which the industry is able to launch fully autonomous driving on a large size," stated Wei Dong Vice President and Chief safety operations chief of Baidus Intelligent Driving Group.

In Wuhan Baidus service will be available during the hours of 9 a.m.until 5 p.m and covers 13 square kilometers.In Chongqing the service will be available from 9:15 a.m.until 4:45 p.m.in a 30 square km area to start with.In the last month, Baidu revealed designs for its sixth generation robotaxi The Apollo RT6 EV , which costs about $37,000.Baidu intends to extend its ride-hailing service in 2025 to 65 cities, and 100 cities by 2030 as per the report.

Self-driving vehicle service Cruise recently launched a driverless commercial service in San Francisco, and Waymo has been offering self-driving services in the city of Arizona since the year 2020.na.