Baidu to Add 200 Fully Driverless Robotaxis to Fleet in 2023, Aiming for World's Largest Fully Driverless Ride-hailing Area
- Baidu received the first license to test autonomous vehicles with no safety operator on board inBeijing, paving the way for launching paid fully driverless robotaxi service inChina'scapital city after the success inWuhanandChongqing
- Baidu is expanding the operation area, fleet size and hours of commercialized fully driverless robotaxi service in central Chinese cityWuhan
- Baidu aims to build the world's biggest fully driverless ride-hailing area in 2023, and plans to put an additional 200 fully driverless robotaxis into operation the same year
BEIJING,Dec. 29, 2022/PRNewswire/ -- Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDUand HKEX: 9888) ("Baidu" or the "Company"), a leading AI company with strong internet foundation, today announced a major step forward for its autonomous ride-hailing business inBeijing, as the company has been granted the Chinese capital's first-ever license to test drive fully driverless vehicles on public roads, with no driver or safety operator in the car.
Earlier this week, Baidu also announced a major expansion of its commercialized fully driverless robotaxi service inWuhan, tripling the size of its operation area, increasing the number of robotaxis in service and expanding operating time to include key evening hours.
这两个一起行动标志着一个重要的里程碑Baidu's ambitious autonomous ride-hailing roadmap, as the company plans to put an additional 200 fully driverless robotaxis into operation acrossChinain 2023, aiming to cover thelargest fully driverless ride-hailing service area in the worldby the end of the same year.
By receivingBeijing'sfirst license to test vehicleswith no driver or safety operator in the car, Baidu is one step closer to providing fully driverless ride-hailing service to residents in the capital city. A total of 10 fully driverless test vehicles will travel across a 20 square kilometer area in Beijing Yizhuang Economic Development Zone, covering a series of complex urban road scenarios. With the start of test drives inBeijing, the cumulative area of operation and testing for Baidu's fully driverless fleet now covers a total area ofover 100 square kilometersacrossChina.
InWuhan, with its most recent expansion, Baidu's autonomous ride-hailing service platform Apollo Go now covers an area of 130 square kilometers (50 square miles) in the city, serving a population of 1 million. The expansion extends the coverage of Baidu's fully driverless service from Junshan New Town to the third to fifth ring of Wuhan Economic Development Zone. At the same time, the operating hours of fully driverless robotaxi service in Junshan New Town have been extended to7:00-23:00in order to better meet the public's needs for evening travel.Baidu now becomes the first and currently the only vendor inChinato provide commercialized fully driverless robotaxi service during evening hours.
Apollo Go has witnessed stunning growth inWuhanover the past several months, having begun operations in the city inMay 2022. Three months later,Wuhanbecame the first city inChinato host commercial operation of fully driverless autonomous drivingafter Apollo Go upgraded its services in August. As one of the leading centers of automotive industry innovation in centralChina,Wuhanhas been actively leading the way in enacting policies to support autonomous driving. At present,Wuhanhas over 400 kilometers of roads fully enabled by intelligent networks, ranking at the forefront inChina.
The speed of Apollo Go's expansion inBeijingandWuhanis backed by Baidu's years of experience in autonomous driving technology. Drawing on a decade of R&D investments in this area, Baidu's mature technology and systems allow the company to deploy autonomous driving at scale. Baidu has accumulated more than 40 million kilometers of L4 autonomous driving test mileage and 3,477 autonomous driving patent families, holding the world record for number of autonomous driving patents for four consecutive years. In addition toWuhan, Apollo Go currently provides commercialized autonomous ride-hailing services in cities includingBeijing,ShenzhenandChongqing. Apollo Go's service inChongqingandWuhanfeatures driverless commercial operation, with no driver or safety operator in the car, making the company the first inChinato operate fully driverless robotaxis in multiple cities. By the end of the third quarter of this year, the cumulative order volume of Apollo Go exceeded1.4 million,ranking Baidu as the world's largest robotaxi service provider.
"Backed by the company's solid foundation in AI, Baidu provides a safe, intelligent and efficient autonomous driving technology system, from fully driverless operation to large-scale commercial operation," saidWang Chong, ChiefBrand Officerof Baidu Intelligent Driving Group. "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."
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.
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SOURCE Baidu, Inc.
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