It became known that from now on, the Apollo Go robot taxi service from Baidu will have to appear on a regular basis in the largest settlements in China. Authoritative publication Gizmodo, in conjunction with state-owned Chinese newspaper China Daily, reports that the technology firm has unveiled Apollo Go in Shenzhen’s Nanshan district, thereby making unmanned taxis available in every “tier one” Chinese city after being deployed in six cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.
It is important to clarify that this launch covers one of the most densely populated regions in southern China, with the total population of Shenzhen exceeding 13 million, and also offers autonomous rides in the “homeland of local technology industry heavyweights” such as Huawei and Tencent. So the initial robot taxi service will be available in the new regions through the proprietary Baidu Apollo Go application at 50 stations from 9:00 to 17:00. Also, one cannot ignore the fact that this time the company decided to focus on the “high-frequency” transport arteries, including the Shenzhen Talent Park, as well as its surroundings.
Thus, now Baidu plans to expand coverage to more than 300 stations by the end of this year. But one way or another, yet it is at this stage that Apollo Go, unfortunately, is far from being ubiquitous. Baidu expects to serve 65 cities as early as 2025, while the goal of reaching 100 cities should be achieved by 2030. The giant is also facing increasing competition from competitors such as AutoX, which also offers self-driving car rides to everyone.
However, this represents one of the largest real robotaxi deployments. The Waymo One service, by the way, is usually only available in parts of the Phoenix metropolitan area, while General Motors’ Cruise has only recently begun offering limited public trips to San Francisco for its customers. Baidu, on the other hand, is one step ahead of the competitors mentioned above, and, by and large, at the moment, the only question is whether the company can maintain this advantage in the future?
