A self-driving robotaxi developed by Chinese search provider and artificial intelligence (AI) heavyweight Baidu and Chinese carmaker FAW Hongqi participates in a test ride for seed passengers in Changsha, central China’s Hunan Province, Dec. 6, 2019. Driverless taxis are now available for hire in suburban Beijing, marking a new chapter in intelligent transport, China Daily reported Monday.
Beijing earlier in March granted licenses to Chinese tech giant Baidu and autonomous vehicle startup Pony.ai to run fully driverless robotaxi services, according to the news report. This is the first time that a fully autonomous fleet of vehicles has been granted permission to operate in a world-class metropolis, the report added.
The two companies, both among the leading players in China’s autonomous driving industry, have each deployed 10 autonomous vehicles in a 60-square-kilometer area in Yizhuang, located in the southern suburb of Beijing, according to the report.
It added that Baidu plans to expand its autonomous ride-hailing services to 65 cities in 2025 and 100 in 2030. China’s self-driving taxi service is expected to reach 1.3 trillion (188.6 billion U.S. dollars) by 2030, accounting for 60 percent of the country’s ride-hailing market at that time, the report stated, citing forecasts from global consultancy IHS Markit.