Stock Groups

Baidu kicks off robotaxi business, after Beijing city’s fare approval

[ad_1]

One day after Baidu’s Apollo Robotaxi trial, a safety employee rides in the self-driving robotaxi in Beijing.

Getty Images| Visual China Group | Getty Images

BEIJING — BaiduCNBC has learned that you can now start to collect robotaxi fares from a Beijing area starting on Thursday. It is an important step in building your driverless taxi company.

As local U.S. governments have made similar progress, the regulatory approval for robotaxis in China is a welcome development.

Beijing City’s moves carry additional weight.

This approval from China’s capital is the first to allow companies to charge customers for their robotaxi rides. In an exclusive interview, Wei Dong (vice president and chief security officer at Baidu’s Intelligent Driving Group) stated that this approval sets the scene for similar cities in China, such as Shanghai and Guangzhou.

He anticipates that these cities will act by the end of next year.

What is the cost of this?

The robotaxi service of Baidu’s Apollo unit can now collect fares for passengers who use one of the self-driving vehicles in Beijing’s Yizhuang suburb.

The company didn’t disclose the pricing but said the fares were comparable to the ride-hailing premium rates offered through apps such as Uber. DidiThese rides can be twice the price of regular ones.

Baidu started offering free rides on its robotaxis in Yizhuang starting October 2020. On Wednesday, the “Luobokuaipao robotaxi app” offered a 34-yuan sample fare ($5.31) for a three-kilometer (1.86 mile) ride from Yizhuang’s Sam’s Club, to a subway station nearby.

Didi’s express service costs 14 Yuan (about $2.19) for the same route. For the same route, Didi offers a sample premium rate fare at 27 yuan.

Yizhuang’s novelty taxi that self-driving, free of charge, has attracted a large number of users. Wei estimated that over 20,000 people ride at least 10 times per month. While it is not known how many users will use the service once they are required to pay, Wei plans to have 100 more robotaxi cars validated each year.

Approval of Robotaxis in the U.S. and China

Wei expects that in the next year or two, the regulatory momentum will likely broadly support the testing of fully driverless vehicles — those without safety drivers — on public roads.

According to Credit Suisse’s report, 60% of ride-sharing users pay for a driver.

On Nov. 16, Alibaba-backed autonomous driving company AutoX claimed its fully driverless robotaxis now operate in the largest single region in China — 168 square kilometers (65 square miles) in the Pingshan District of the southern city of Shenzhen. AutoX stated that it was launched in January for the general public to register to ride a robotaxi. There was no cost for the ride.

Baidu has granted a permit to operate commercial autonomous vehicles on a 60-kilometer radius. This includes a Yizhuang, which is home to several businesses like JD.com headquarters. This region is approximately half an hour drive from Beijing’s central Beijing.

Beijing has made Yizhuang available to companies for testing their autonomous driving projects. They include JD’s unmanned delivery cars and Baidu’s robotaxi vehicles.

Baidu plans to expand

Robin Li, Baidu CEO, stated last week that his company had plans to expand its Apollo Go robotaxi service to 65 cities by 2025, and to 100 cities by 2030.This is an increase of five cities.

It was also revealed that the next generation of robotic vehicles will be half as expensive to produce than the previous generation. The models are co-branded with three electric car makers: Chinese start-up WM Motor, Aion — a spin-off of state-owned GAC — and state-owned BAIC Group’s Arcfox.

Baidu and BAIC claimed in June that 1,000 driverless cars could be manufactured by them. 480,000 yuan ($75,000) each,An autonomous car costs an average 1,000,000 yuan, compared to the standard of 1 million.

Wei joined Baidu’s Intelligent Driving Group in May after seven years at Shouqi Limousine & Chauffeur, where he was CEO. It operates Didi’s high-end version.

Baidu is focusing on specific scenarios and reducing the costs of its self-driving tech, according to He.

Rather than fully utilizing lidar technology — which requires costly sensors to create detailed maps before the robotaxi can operate — Wei spoke generally of using algorithms to increase efficient use of hardware.

CNBC Pro provides more details about electric cars

On the consumer front, Wei said Apollo would focus on ways to give the user an experience beyond just a mode of transport — such as displaying the streets of Beijing from 20 years ago on the car windows, instead of the current street view.

He said that another strategy is to use the robotaxi in non-travel functions such as medical treatment and public libraries.

While Apollo represents a very small portion of Baidu, the development of Apollo falls in line the CEO’s efforts at convincing investors that Baidu’s future is in artificial intelligence (and related areas like autonomous driving) and other areas.

In the third quarter of 2018, non-online marketing revenue was Baidu’s fastest growing revenue area. This revenue increased 76% compared to last year and reached 5.2 billion yuan ($806million). Baidu attributes the increase to cloud computing demand and other AI-related businesses.

— CNBC’s Arjun KharpalThis report was contributed by you.

[ad_2]