Baidu kicks off paid Robotaxi service in Shenzhen

Beijing (Gasgoo)- Baidu announced on January 19 its autonomous driving ride-hailing service, Apollo Go, was recently permitted to charge fares to users in Shenzhen’s Pingshan District.

Photo credit: Baidu 

Users can hail a Robotaxi via the "Apollo Go" mobile application or WeChat mini program. The permitted operational route of Baidu’s Robotaxi fleet covers the core areas of Pingshan District, including office centers, residential areas, shopping plazas, and leisure and cultural areas, etc. Baidu said that its Robotaxi service coverage will continue to expand, in a bid to better meet the daily travel needs of local residents. 

At the present, Pingshan District’s dedicated testing and demonstration platform for intelligent connected transportation has served more than 20 autonomous driving related enterprises, with a total test distance of more than 60,000km. Pingshan District has started the smart transportation retrofit project of expressways, highways, main and secondary urban roads, as well as over 180 major intersections within its region. Meanwhile, Pingshan District is also building Shenzhen's first closed testing ground for intelligent connected vehicles.

As the one of the earliest enterprises to layout in the autonomous driving field in China, Baidu Apollo possesses industry-leading technology and mature autonomous driving solutions. Up to now, the company’s total testing distance has exceeded 45 million kilometers, with 3,477 autonomous driving patents, ranking first in the world for four consecutive years.