China’s leading search engine company Baidu said its autonomous driving unit Apollo has received licences that could allow it to charge a fee for its free-of-charge robotaxi services in Cangzhou,Baidu said on Monday that 35 of its robotaxis have been granted licences by the local Cangzhou government to begin commercial operations, while another 10 were given the green light to conduct road tests without a driver behind the wheel, a move that could reduce operating costs for the robotaxi fleet.
The granting of the licences comes ahead of Baidu’s secondary listing in Hong Kong, slated for later this month, which could raise US$3.6bil for the company. Baidu has focused its research and development efforts on artificial intelligence and autonomous driving-related businesses to bolster future growth amid a decline in its online marketing services revenue over the past three years.
Baidu Apollo’s robotaxi fleet in Cangzhou was rolled out last August and has so far accumulated 524,696 kilometres of test mileage. The city is one of the smallest of several Chinese locations hosting Baidu robotaxi services. Last year, Baidu had about 30 vehicles operating in designated areas of Cangzhou, with residents able to book free rides using Baidu apps.
Each Baidu robotaxi in Cangzhou costs about 1mil yuan , with 20% of that being for the car itself and the remainder for adapting the vehicle to autonomous driving, according to an Apollo employee, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly on the matter.
Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)