Baidu Apollo greenlighted driverless ride-hailing service on Beijing open roads

Beijing (Gasgoo)- On April 28th, China’s tech giant Baidu announced that it has received permission to operate driverless ride-hailing service on public open roads in Beijing, as the first permit of its kind in China.

Photo credit: Baidu

The permit is issued by the head office of the Beijing High-level Automated Driving Demonstration Area (BJHAD) to ten fully autonomous vehicles from Baidu. The company will provide ride-hailing service in a designated area of 60 square kilometers, without safety drivers onboard via its Apollo Go Robotaxi service platform. Starting April 28th, users can hail a ride through the Apollo Go mobile application from 10:00 to 16:00.

Photo credit: Baidu

According to Baidu, it plans to expand its Robotaxi fleet by 30 more vehicles to provide a more comprehensive and convenient mobility service to the public.

The issuance of the permit not only represents Baidu’s success in the commercialization of autonomous driving, but also signifies a benchmark for Beijing’s forward-looking progress in autonomous driving development.

In the past nine years, Baidu has accumulated over 27 million kilometers of safe road testing mileages in China and in California. Since its initial launch in 2020, the Apollo Go service has branched out to nine cities in China including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Changsha, Cangzhou, Yangquan, and Wuzhen. In the last quarter of 2021, the Apollo Go platform has served 213,000 orders, leading the industry by volume.