Baidu Apollo Robobus licensed for road test in Beijing E-Town

Beijing (Gasgoo)- Baidu’s Apollo was granted the first batch of road test licenses for intelligent connected buses in Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (E-Town).

Photo credit: Baidu Apollo

Earlier on March 31st, the office of the Beijing High-level Automated Driving Demonstration Area in E-Town issued a management and enforcement regulation on intelligent connected bus road tests and pilot demonstrations. 

Baidu’s Apollo Robobus is the first mass-production L4 intelligent connected bus worldwide, said the executive of Baidu Apollo. Per the regulation, there is one safety driver and one administrator onboard to ensure driving and regulatory safety during operations.

The safety drivers are all strictly trained and examined. So are the buses. The Robobuses also passed comprehensive simulation and field tests before taking on real-life operations. 

Aside from Baidu, China's autonomous driving developer QCraft and SenseTime are also given road test licenses. 

As one of the leading areas regarding high technology adoption, Beijing’s E-Town has always been an early adopter of all autonomous driving technologies. Currently, there are Robotaxis, Robobuses, unmanned retail vehicles, self-driving delivery vehicles running on the streets of E-Town. 

BJHAD has been actively constructing smart city infrastructures to match up with the intelligent connected vehicle development. The autonomous driving-dedicated zone plans to accelerate its construction under the demonstration zone 3.0 guidelines and expand to cover more areas in E-Town.