Baidu to expand Robotaxi ride-hailing service to 30 cities within 2-3 years

Beijing (Gasgoo)- Baidu will expand its autonomous ride-hailing service to as many as 30 domestic cities within the next 2-3 years to serve more and more customers, Robin Li, the technology giant’s chairman and CEO revealed at this year's World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC).

Robin Li; photo credit: Baidu

Last month, the company launched the latest generation of autonomous ride-hailing vehicle Apollo Moon, to make travelling much cheaper than current ride-hailing services. Baidu Apollo has begun to offer Robotaxi ride-hailing services in such cities as Beijing (newly added Tongzhou area), Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing.

The company is also rapidly developing its brand-new intelligent vehicle, which is expected to be more like a robot and offer user experience within 2-3 years, the executive added. Different from those who think vehicles should be a big-sized mobile phone or those who think vehicles should be a computer with four wheels, Baidu thinks that intelligent vehicles in the future should be more like robots.  

Robin Li visiting JiDU; photo credit: Baidu

Just the day before the WAIC conference, Robin visited JiDU Auto, its joint venture with Geely. Registered on March 2 this year, the joint venture completed many important tasks in 128 days, such as team building, product development system building. It took only two months to finish nearly 500 design drafts, half of the time traditional automakers used to do the same work. Currently, the new company’s first model has entered the stage of engineering development.

“We hope to bring the most advanced AI technology to market as soon as possible," said Robin Li.