Baidu to road test Apollo robotaxi in Chongqing

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chinese Internet giant Baidu announced a strategic partnership with the Chongqing municipal government at the 2019 Smart China Expo to team up on areas such as autonomous driving, smart government, smart city and blockchain solutions, helping the populous city drive the intelligent transformation of industries.

(Photo source: Baidu Apollo's WeChat account)

With support from both the Yongchuan district government and the Chongqing Academy of Metrology and Quality Inspection, Baidu will help the city build an open base for autonomous driving tests in Western China.

By virtue of the district's transportation networks and testing scenarios, the project is engineered to create a demonstration environment for the applications of autonomous driving and intelligent vehicle infrastructure cooperative system.

Under the project, passenger trial rides for Baidu's robotaxi will be conducted on the designated open roads for the landing of intelligent transportation products and services.

To further boost the development of local autonomous driving industry, Chongqing municipal government will release necessary policies to help relevant enterprises and programs open up scale road network and obtain license plates for autonomous driving tests.

Under the partnership, Baidu will set up an Apollo-based innovation hub for autonomous driving in Yongchuan District to accelerate the utilization and operation of Baidu's Robotaxi there.

Moreover, the smart government, AI technical ecosystem, training of AI talents and pilot application of blockchain are also involved in the newly-build collaboration. For instance, Chongqing will make government affairs more transparent to the public by using Baidu’s Smart Mini Program platform, Baijiahao and AI customer services.