Baidu Gets Permit To Roll Out Fully Driverless Robotaxi Service In Beijing

Chinese artificial intelligence company Baidu Inc. BIDU has received permit to provide fully driverless robotaxi services in Beijing.

What Happened: With the permit, Baidu has become the first provider of fully driverless robotaxi services in the capital city of any country worldwide, the company said in a statement.

Baidu, now, provides fully driverless autonomous ride-hailing services in Beijing, Wuhan and Chongqing. There are no human drivers or safety operators in these cars.

See Also: Best Stock Trading Software

With the new permit, Baidu Apollo will deploy 10 fully driverless vehicles in Beijing’s Yizhuang Economic Development Zone. Baidu’s autonomous ride-hailing service platform Apollo Go currently provides over 20 rides per vehicle per day within the region on an average. Baidu claims this is more than the average ride volume of traditional online ride-hailing services.

Apollo Go provided 561,000 rides to the public in the fourth quarter, an increase of 162% year-on-year. By January 2023, Apollo Go provided over two million rides cumulatively.

Earlier this week, Baidu founder Robin Li introduced the Ernie Bot, its ChatGPT equivalent. Investors were not impressed by Li’s pre-recorded video for the launch and raised doubts on Ernie’s ability to match up with ChatGPT, as seen by the sharp decline in its shares in premarket trading on Thursday.

Price Action: Baidu shares rose about 5% in after hours after closing at $138.16 on Thursday, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.

Read More: ChatGPT Fever? Snapchat Tries To Monetize Trend With Customizable AI Chat Bot Launch