Baidu, Inc. has kickstarted fully driverless robotaxi services to the public in Beijing starting from May 2, 2021. This is China's first paid autonomous vehicle service where users can hail a robotaxi without a safety driver behind the steering wheel, marking a landmark step on the road to commercialisation of autonomous driving.
The fully driverless Apollo Go Robotaxi service will first be launched in Beijing's Shougang Park – one of the venues for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics – and will soon be transporting visitors at the games.
By using the Apollo Go App, users can locate a robotaxi in the vicinity and hail a driverless ride by themselves through a system of unmanned self-service processes. Features including virtual reality navigation and remote car honking can help users identify the car's location.
To unlock the autonomous vehicles, users must scan a QR code and health code on the car for identity verification and pandemic prevention purposes.
Upon boarding the vehicle and clicking on the 'Start the Journey' button, the system will ensure that seat belts are fastened, and the doors are shut; the trip only begin after all the passenger safety protocol checks are completed. With no safety driver at the helm, the 5G Remote Driving Service is present at all times to allow human operators to remotely access the vehicles in the case of exceptional emergencies.
At Beijing Shougang Park, the robotaxis will be able to transport users to sports halls, work areas, coffee shops and hotels.
During the upcoming Winter Olympics, the Apollo robotaxis will provide shuttle services for athletes and staff.
'Introducing unmanned services is an indispensable stage for the commercialisation of autonomous driving. Today, we are opening the fully driverless robotaxi services in Beijing for the public, which we achieved only after conducting countless scalable driverless tests in many cities over a long period of time,' said Yunpeng Wang, Vice President and General Manager of autonomous driving technology at Baidu.
'In the future, Baidu Apollo will launch driverless robotaxis in more cities, enabling the public to access a greener, low-carbon, and convenient travel services, while continuing to improve the unmanned service process and user experience. The commercialisation of autonomous driving can alleviate congestion effectively and help to reach the peak carbon dioxide emissions and achieve carbon neutrality in China,' he said.
Since October last year, Baidu has started autonomous driving tests for the public under trial operations in areas such as Yizhuang, Haidian and Shunyi in Beijing.
Baidu Apollo is moving forward to a new stage of scalable commercialised operations with the launch of the fully driverless robotaxi services in the capital, as a starting point of commercialised operations in first-tier Chinese cities. Baidu Apollo recently announced the completion of over ten million kilometers of road testing for autonomous driving.