Baidu Apollo to start Robotaxi service in Wuzhen, Zhejiang

Beijing (Gasgoo)- The autonomous driving arm of Baidu, Apollo, announced that on March 26th,  its Robotaxi “Apollo Go” service will land in the scenery site of Wuzhen, an ancient water town in Zhejiang province. 

Photo credit: Baidu Apollo

Operating Robotaxis in a village like Wuzhen signifies Baidu Apollo’s mobility service expansion, from a metropolis like Beijing and Shanghai, to rural but characteristic areas. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the Apollo Go service has completed 213,000 ride-hailing orders. 

Per the plans, the Apollo Go Robotaxi service will gradually cover the entire Wuzhen area, with 84 stations initially, in the East and West Gate tourist sites, and the residential area. Users can hail a ride from 9:00 to 17:00 daily, via the Apollo Go mobile application.

As the permanent site of the World Internet Conference, Wuzhen has become one of the international hubs of China, attracting numerous tech companies and intelligent auto companies. Wuzhen has gradually formed a comprehensive intelligent automotive industrial ecosystem consisting of auto parts, software to V2X aspects. 

In fact, Baidu Apollo’s first autonomous vehicle made its debut in Wuzhen in 2015 and started open road tests the following year. In December 2021, Baidu built its fourth pilot demonstration base for the intelligent V2X ecosystem, namely, the Apollo Park, in Wuzhen, after Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. 

Currently, Baidu has accumulated over 250 million kilometers of autonomous driving mileage and received 593 autonomous driving test licenses in China.