Chinese technology giant Baidu has launched its robotaxi service in Beijing, China and started collecting fees from paying customers.
Baidu has been testing autonomous robotaxis throughout the city for over a year and earlier this week, received regulatory approval allowing it to start collecting fares from users.
The company currently operates 67 self-driving cars in Beijing’s suburban district of Yizhuang. It hasn’t said how much users will have to pay but told CNBC that fares will be comparable with the premium level services offered by ride-hailing apps like Didi which, as the outlet notes, can cost twice as much as ordinary rides. Baidu’s vice president and chief security operation officer, Wei Dong, expects other major cities like Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen to start allowing it to charge users.
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According to Baidu, more than 20,000 users each take at least 10 rides in its robotaxis each month and the company plans to roll out an additional 100 robotaxis onto the streets each year.
The Baidu Apollo Go robotaxi service currently operates in five cities and a plan from chief executive Robin Li calls for the service to grow to 65 cities by 2025 and to 100 cities by 2030. Baidu also says that its next generation of robotaxi vehicles will cost half the price to manufacture than its current vehicles.
In August, Baidu revealed an interesting robocar concept at its annual Baidu World conference. This concept came complete with gullwing-style doors and lacked traditional controls like a steering wheel and pedals. It also uses voice and facial recognition.