Baidu receives China’s first fully driverless robotic taxi license

China’s search engine giant Baidu Inc said on Monday it has received permits from two Chinese cities to operate fully driverless robotic taxi services on open roads, the first of its kind in the country.

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Permits, granted by the southwestern municipality of Chongqing and the central city of Wuhan, allow commercial robotaxis to offer rides to the public without human safety drivers in the car. These have become effective from Monday.

Baidu said they marked a “turning point” in China’s policy-making towards autonomous driving.

Wei Dong, chief security operations officer of Baidu’s Intelligent Driving Group, told Reuters in an interview, “These permits have profound significance for the industry. If we think about space exploration, this moment is equivalent to landing on the Moon.” Is. “

First, Baidu will deploy a batch of five fee-charging robotaxis in each city, where they are required to operate in designated areas from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Wuhan and 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Chongqing. will be allowed. The company said in a statement.

The service area covers 30 km (11.58 sq mi) in Chongqing’s Yongchuan District and 13 km in the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone.

In April, Baidu’s Apollo and Toyota Motor Corp-backed Pony.ai said it had received permission to deploy robotaxis without safety drivers in the driver’s seat on open roads within a 60 sq km area in Beijing. But the Beijing permit still requires them to have a security driver in the passenger seat. These services have started.

According to Wei, Baidu is in talks with local governments in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen to obtain a license within a year to test fully driverless and unpaid robotaxis in those cities.

China’s efforts to fast-track autonomous vehicle tests and permits come as US regulators also move forward with milestone-setting autonomous driving policies.

In January, self-driving company Cruise received a permit from the California Public Utilities Commission, which allows it to offer paid and completely driverless rides on select San Francisco streets from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Baidu’s robotic taxi service, Apollo Go, has operated more than 1 million rides in 10 Chinese cities since its launch in 2020. Baidu has not reported any issues with the service and has not given a breakdown of how much it has invested in the project.