China roads will see robotaxis not driven by humans!
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Robotaxis will be allowed to operate in two Chinese cities without human safety. The biggest search engine in China, Baidu, has been given permission to run driverless taxi services (called “robotaxis”) in two Chinese cities.
This is the first time anywhere in the country that services like these will be offered. Apollo Go is a taxi service in China that is driven by itself. It uses self-driving Robo-taxis.
With the permits, commercial robotaxis can drive people around without a person in the car to make sure everything is safe. Some experts have said that this is like the first time people walked on the moon.
Since it started in 2020, the Apollo Go robotaxi service has given more than a million rides to people in ten different Chinese cities.
Key facts!
- In each city, Baidu will roll out a batch of five robotaxis that will charge riders a fee.
- In Wuhan, these robotaxis will be allowed to run in certain places from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and in Chongqing, they will be allowed to run from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
- The service areas are between 30 and 13 square kilometres in size.
- In April, Baidu had gotten permission to put robotaxis on open roads without safety drivers in the driver’s seat within an area of sixty square kilometres.
- Baidu is also talking with the governments of Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen about getting licences within the next year.
- In these cities, the company wants to test robotaxis that can drive themselves and don’t cost anything.
- China is trying to speed up the process of giving permits for driverless cars and putting them through tests.
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Watch a video
Ready for a robotaxi trip without human drivers in the car? As of today, Baidu has become the first and only company to offer commercial fully #driverless ride-hailing services to the public in China. Watch the video to find out what it’s like to ride in an #ApolloGo #robotaxi! pic.twitter.com/L6ZUhiZMUT
— Baidu Inc. (@Baidu_Inc) August 8, 2022
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