Starting this week, passengers can ride the Baidu driverless taxis in Wuhan between 7 am and 11 pm
Baidu offers driverless taxi services for nighttime passengers in China. Image: unsplash.com
Baidu, the Chinese internet giant, is making some big strides in autonomous driving. This week, the fully driverless robotaxi service starts operating in the Chinese city of Wuhan during the night time.
The Baidu-branded cars will transfer passengers from 7 am to 11 pm within the city limits, without safety drivers behind the wheel. Previously, its unmanned vehicles could only operate from 9 am to 5 pm. The updated scheme is expected to cater to one million customers.
The prolonged operation time is possible due to Baidu’s combination of technologies: third-party cameras, radars, and lidars that help its cars see better in low-visibility conditions.
Baidu started offering fully driverless robotaxi rides back in August. In Q3 2022, Apollo Go, Baidu’s robotaxi-hailing app, completed over 474,000 rides. That signifies 311% year-over-year growth. Overall, Apollo Go surpassed 1.4 million orders as of Q3.
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