Baidu’s taxi robot can now operate without a human driver. A major novelty in China and an important step towards a large-scale service.
China, like other countries in Asia, is a country ahead of the world in a number of areas. This is the case, for example, with an unmanned vehicle. Several projects have already been launched, and more or less autonomous vehicles are being developed on the country’s roads. Today Baidu’s robot taxi can operate without a human driver. Great first.
Baidu robot taxi can now work without a driver
Baidu has just received permission to offer driverless robot taxi services in China. The Chinese giant will even become the first company in the country to receive such a permit. Last April, Baidu received permission to operate a self-driving taxi service in Beijing on the condition that a human driver replace the driver or front passenger. Today, a company can offer a service with cars in which all passengers are just passengers.
First in China
However, this permission has some limitations. Fully autonomous Apollo Go vehicles will only be able to transport paying passengers to certain areas of Wuhan and Chongqing during daylight hours. The scope of the service covers 13 square kilometers in the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone (WHDZ) and 30 square kilometers in the Yongchuan District of Chongqing. In recent months, the WHDZ has been significantly redesigned to allow for such tests and operations.
and an important step towards a large-scale service
Baidu explains that its robot taxis have many safety measures related to basic autonomous driving features. These include redundancy monitoring, remote management capabilities, and a redundant operating system.
Either way, it’s a big step forward for Baidu, which dreams of offering massive robot taxi services. The company has also been testing its vehicles in the United States for several years now and could become a major competitor to Waymo or Cruise, for example.