Baidu Receives License to Test Fully Driverless Robotaxis in Beijing

China's Baidu has received Beijing's first-ever license to test drive fully driverless vehicles on public roads, with no driver or safety operator in the car. 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 in Beijing, the cumulative area of operation and testing for Baidu's fully driverless fleet now covers a total area of over 100 square kilometers across China.

The company also announced a major expansion of its commercialised fully driverless robotaxi service in Wuhan, tripling the size of its operation area, increasing the number of robotaxis in service and expanding operating time to include key evening hours.

Baidu plans to put an additional 200 fully driverless robotaxis into operation in China in 2023.

Wang Chong, Chief Brand Officer of Baidu Intelligent Driving Group, says: "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. 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."

"Baidu's new generation autonomous driving map is equipped with comprehensive capabilities such as automatic production, real-time fusion, and knowledge enhancement," says Jizhou Huang, Baidu's autonomous driving technology expert.

Baidu is aiming to cover the largest fully driverless ride-hailing service area in the world by the end of 2023.