Baidu's Robotaxi service permitted for fully unmanned commercial operation in Shenzhen

Beijing (Gasgoo)- Recently, Baidu's autonomous driving mobility service platform Apollo Go was awarded the first batch pilot notice of unmanned commercialization of intelligent connected vehicles by Shenzhen Pingshan District.

Photo credit: Baidu

The notice allows Apollo Go to conduct commercialized  L4 driverless ride-hailing (Robotaxi) operation in the area. Previously, the Apollo Go Robotaxi service has been deployed in Beijing, Wuhan, and Chongqing.

At present, the operating area of Apollo Go in Shenzhen reaches 188 square kilometers, with operating hours from 7:00 to 22:00, covering the morning and evening rush hours. Users can call a fully unmanned Robotaxi through the Apollo Go mobile App or mini program, Baidu Map, Baidu App, and other platforms. The vehicle will drive itself to the destination entered by the user, and the vehicle will start smoothly after the passenger in the back row clicks on the screen to "start the trip".

Over the past several years, Baidu has been steadily expanding the service reach of Apollo Go and its operation has now been deployed in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chongqing, and other cities.  

By the first quarter of 2023, Baidu’s Apollo Go Robotaxi service has completed over 2 million ride orders, said Baidu. In addition to the growing order volume, the service has also gained a high level of user satisfaction. The data shows that as of the first quarter of 2023, the user satisfaction rating of the Apollo Go mobile App reached 4.9 points, with 97.12% of five-star reviews. 

At the same time, the scale of active users and user stickiness of the Robotaxi service also maintain high growth rate, as the number of active users of the Apollo Go platform in 2022 increased nearly two times compared with that of a year ago, said Baidu.

Up to now, Baidu has accumulated more than 60 million kilometers of safe operation testing distance with its L4 autonomous vehicles.