More than 70% of Baidu Apollo Go robotaxi rides in Wuhan have been absolutely driverless as of April, and the corporate mentioned in May it anticipated 100% of the rides to be utterly independent in coming quarters.
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BEIJING — Chinese tech corporate Baidu‘s Apollo Go robotaxi trade plans to enlarge to Europe this yr, in line with a supply accustomed to the topic.
Over the approaching months, Apollo Go plans to open an entity in Switzerland and release operations in the neighborhood and in Turkey, mentioned the supply, who may simplest remark anonymously as a result of the sensitivity of the topic.
Baidu declined to remark when contacted by way of CNBC.
The corporate’s Apollo Go robotaxi unit operates absolutely driverless taxis for the general public, together with in a suburb of Beijing and in different towns in China. Fares are generally backed.
In March, Apollo Go introduced it plans to enlarge to Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Last week the corporate mentioned it used to be sporting out its trying out in Hong Kong.
Local regulators in China have generally allowed robotaxis to function absolutely autonomously after they have got long gone thru a number of levels of trying out, with and with out protection drivers within.
Rival robotaxi operator Pony.AI mentioned previous this month that it had entered a strategic partnership with Uber to release the corporate’s cars at the U.S. corporate’s platform, with plans to additionally achieve a presence within the Middle East later this yr.