Baidu expands driverless robotaxi service in Wuhan

Chinese internet giant Baidu said it is expanding its robotaxi service in Wuhan as the company aims to build the world’s biggest fully driverless ride-hailing area in 2023.

Photo credit: Baidu

Apollo Go, Baidu’s autonomous ride-hailing service platform, has tripled the size of its operation area to cover 130 square kilometers in Wuhan. It also extended working hours, becoming the first vendor in China to provide commercialized and fully driverless robotaxi services during evening hours.

Baidu’s vehicles are equipped with multi-layer technologies such as redundancy monitoring, remote driving, and a safety operation system. These mechanisms are backed by the firm’s over 32 million kilometers of self-driving mileage.

“The generalization ability of Baidu’s autonomous driving technology has progressed at a more advanced pace than expected. Now, the lead time to deploy autonomous driving technology in a new city is only 20 days,” said Wang Chong, chief brand officer of Baidu Intelligent Driving Group.

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Apollo Go currently provides its autonomous ride-hailing services in Wuhan, Beijing, Shenzhen, Chongqing, and other cities across China. Its offering in Chongqing and Wuhan features fully driverless operations – which means there is no driver or safety operator in the car.

The service saw its cumulative order volume exceed 1.4 million by the end of the third quarter of 2022.