Baidu said its autonomous ride-hailing service Apollo Go has provided over 14 million public rides as of August 2025.

Apollo Go operates in 16 cities worldwide and has covered more than 200 million kilometers in autonomous driving, according to the company.

In Q2 2025, Apollo Go delivered over 2.2 million fully driverless rides, which Baidu said was up 148% year-on-year.

The Hong Kong Transport Department recently granted Apollo Go a new pilot license to expand trials to the Southern District, after previous tests in North Lantau and Tung Chung.

Apollo Go has logged over 20,000 kilometers of autonomous driving in Hong Kong since receiving its first pilot license there in November 2024.

🔗 Source: Baidu

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Chinese robotaxi companies are scaling faster through strategic partnerships than direct fleet ownership

Apollo Go’s approach of partnering with established ride-hailing platforms like Uber and Lyft represents a fundamentally different scaling strategy than competitors who focus on direct operations.

While Waymo operates over 700 autonomous vehicles directly and Cruise runs over 300 vehicles in their own fleets, Baidu is leveraging partnerships to deploy “thousands of vehicles” across international markets without the capital burden of fleet ownership2.

This partnership model allows Apollo Go to tap into existing user bases and operational infrastructure while focusing resources on technology development rather than fleet management.

The scale difference is already evident in ride volumes—Apollo Go has completed over 14 million rides compared to Waymo’s 20 million autonomous miles driven since 2017, suggesting Apollo Go may be achieving higher utilization rates per vehicle13.

The robotaxi market’s projected growth from $400 million in 2023 to $45.7 billion by 2030 creates enormous opportunity for companies that can scale efficiently, making partnership-based expansion strategies particularly attractive4.

2️⃣ Manufacturing cost advantages may not translate to consumer savings without proper market structure

Despite Baidu’s RT6 autonomous vehicle costing under $30,000 to manufacture compared to typical autonomous vehicles that cost around $200,000, pricing benefits for consumers remain uncertain56.

Research from Yale indicates that lower autonomous vehicle costs don’t automatically lead to cheaper rides—market structure and competition levels ultimately determine consumer pricing6.

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