- Baidu marks a major global milestone in receiving the
permit, becoming the first provider of fully driverless robotaxi
services in the capital city of any country worldwide, with no
human driver or safety operators in the car
- Baidu is currently the only company to provide fully
driverless autonomous ride-hailing services in multiple cities
across China, including
Beijing, Wuhan, and Chongqing
BEIJING, March 17,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU and
HKEX: 9888) ("Baidu" or the "Company"), a
leading AI company with strong internet foundation, has been
granted the first-ever permits to provide fully driverless
ride-hailing service in the Chinese capital Beijing. This marks a major milestone
worldwide as the first-ever fully driverless fleet deployed in the
capital city of any country. Users can now have access to fully
driverless robotaxi service in three megacities in China: Beijing, Wuhan and Chongqing.
With the permits, Baidu Apollo will deploy a total of 10 fully
driverless vehicles in Beijing Yizhuang Economic Development Zone.
Yizhuang is one of the active centers of autonomous driving in
China, with Apollo Go, Baidu's
autonomous ride-hailing service platform, currently providing an
average of more than 20 rides per vehicle per day within the
region, surpassing the average ride volume of traditional online
ride-hailing services.
According to the Beijing Municipal Government Work Report for
2023, the city plans to expand the Beijing High-Level Automated
Demonstration Area (BJHAD), located in the Yizhuang Economic
Development Zone, beyond its existing 60 square
kilometers area towards an eventual 500 square kilometers. The
city is also exploring pathways to operate autonomous driving
vehicles bridging the Yizhuang Economic Development Zone and the
city's nearby airport, enabling commercial autonomous driving
logistics operations serving the wider Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei
region.
Baidu's success in obtaining government permits to operate fully
driverless services across multiple cities in China is rooted in the company's decade-long
technical exploration in autonomous driving. As of today, Baidu
Apollo continues to lead the global competition in autonomous
driving technology and is the only Chinese operator ranked among
the leading autonomous driving vendors in the world, according
to Guidehouse Insights Leaderboard released in Q1 2023.
Baidu has been developing autonomous driving technology since
2013 and has accumulated more than 50 million kilometers testing
mileage on Level 4 autonomous driving. The company currently holds
over 4,600 patent families for autonomous driving technology,
including the greatest number of high-level autonomous driving
patents in the world.
Alongside breakthroughs in receiving government permits, Apollo
Go has also witnessed continual milestones in its
operation. In the fourth quarter of 2022, Apollo Go provided
561,000 rides to the public, up 162% year over year. The cumulative
rides provided to the public by Apollo Go exceeded 2 million by the
end of January 2023, ranking Baidu as
the world's largest autonomous ride-hailing service provider. Baidu
aims to build the world's biggest fully driverless ride-hailing
area in 2023.
About Baidu
Founded in 2000, Baidu's mission is to make the complicated
world simpler through technology. Baidu is a leading AI company
with strong Internet foundation, trading on the NASDAQ under "BIDU"
and HKEX under "9888." One Baidu ADS represents eight Class A
ordinary shares.
Media Contact
Intlcomm@baidu.com
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SOURCE Baidu, Inc.