Baidu bags China's first fully driverless robotaxi licenses

China search engine giant Baidu Inc said on Monday it has obtained permits to operate fully driverless robotaxi services on open roads from two Chinese cities, the first of their kind in the country.

The permits, awarded 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. They come into effect on Monday.

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

These permits have deep significance for the industry, Wei Dong, chief safety operation officer of Baidus Intelligent Driving Group, told Reuters in an interview. If we think of the exploration of space, this moment is equal to landing on the moon.

At first, Baidu will deploy a batch of five fee-charging robotaxis in each city, where they will be allowed 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, the company said in a statement.

The account areas amount 30 aboveboard km (11.58 aboveboard miles) in Chongqing’s Yongchuan District and 13 sq km in the Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone.

In April, Baidu's Apollo and Toyota Motor Corp-backed Pony.ai answered which they gained permits in Beijing to arrange robotaxis after protection drivers in the driver's bench on accessible anchorage aural a 60 sq km area. But the Beijing permits still crave them to have a protection disciplinarian in the commuter seat. These casework have started.

Baidu is also in talks with local governments in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, to defended licenses aural a year to analysis fully-driverless and contributed robotaxis in those cities, in accordance to Wei.

China's efforts to fast-track chargeless agent trials and permits appear as U.S. regulators are also blame advanced with milestone-setting chargeless active policies.

In January, self-driving aggregation Cruise gained a allow from the California Public Utilities Commission which allows it to action paid and absolutely driverless rides from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. in baddest streets in San Francisco.

Apollo Go, Baidu's robotaxi service, has operated over 1 million rides above 10 Chinese cities back its barrage in 2020.

Baidu has not appear any problems with the account and has not accustomed a breakdown for how abundant it has invested in the project.