Baidu Inc., a Chinese company specializing in artificial intelligence, has been granted permission to offer completely driverless robotaxi services in Beijing.
According to a statement released by the company, Baidu has become the first company in the world to provide completely driverless robotaxi services in the capital city of any country now that they have been granted the permit.
Baidu’s ride-hailing services
In the cities of Beijing, Wuhan, and Chongqing, Baidu now offers ride-hailing services that are entirely driverless and autonomous.
These vehicles do not have any human operators behind the wheel or in charge of safety.
After receiving the new permit, Baidu Apollo will deploy ten entirely driverless vehicles in the Yizhuang Economic Development Zone in Beijing.
Currently, the autonomous ride-hailing service platform Apollo Go which Baidu offers provides an average of more than 20 rides per vehicle per day within the region.
Baidu says this is significantly higher than the typical ride volume experienced by conventional online ride-hailing services.
Baidu’s shares increased by 5%
The number of rides offered to the general public by Apollo Go increased by 162% year-on-year to reach 561,000 in the fourth quarter. By January 2023, the total number of rides provided by Apollo Go would have surpassed two million.
The founder of Baidu, Robin Li, presented the Ernie Bot, which serves as an equivalent to ChatGPT.
BENZINGA reports that investors were underwhelmed by Li’s pre-recorded video for the release and expressed skepticism about the company’s ability to compete successfully with ChatGPT, as evidenced by the precipitous drop in the price of Ernie’s shares during premarket trading on Thursday.
Baidu share prices increased by approximately 5% in the after-hours on Thursday after closing at $138.16.
See Also:
- During the Chinese New Year, Nio hit a record of 900,000 batteries in 17 days
- Jidu Automotive officially releases fully autonomous electric car in China
- Chinese Gov’t to mandate automakers obtain mapping licenses for smart vehicles
- 2022 Beijing auto show officially canceled
- Tesla China shutdowns its flagship store in Beijing
