Baidu Wins Beijing's First-Ever Permit to Provide Fully Driverless Ride-hailing Service

Baidu, Inc. has been granted the first-ever permits to provide fully driverless ride-hailing service in the Chinese capital Beijing. This is the first-ever fully driverless fleet deployed in the capital city of any country.

Users can now access fully driverless robotaxi services in three megacities in China - Beijing, Wuhan and Chongqing.

With the permits, Baidu Apollo will deploy a total of 10 fully driverless vehicles in Beijing Yizhuang Economic Development Zone.

Apollo Go, Baidu's autonomous ride-hailing service platform, currently provides an average of more than 20 rides per vehicle per day within the region.

Baidu has been developing autonomous driving technology since 2013 and has accumulated more than 50 million kilometers testing mileage on Level 4 autonomous driving.

The company currently holds over 4,600 patent families for autonomous driving technology, including the greatest number of high-level autonomous driving patents in the world.

In a press statement, Baidu says: 'Alongside breakthroughs in receiving government permits, Apollo Go has also witnessed continual milestones in its operation. In the fourth quarter of 2022, Apollo Go provided 561,000 rides to the public, up 162% year over year. The cumulative rides provided to the public by Apollo Go exceeded 2 million by the end of January 2023, ranking Baidu as the world's largest autonomous ride-hailing service provider'.

Baidu is aiming to build the world's biggest fully driverless ride-hailing area in 2023.