Baidu has been granted the necessary permits to provide a fully driverless ride-hailing service in the Chinese capital city of Beijing. Through the permit, Baidu customers can access the company’s Apollo Go service in three Chinese megacities – Wuhan, Chongqing, and now Beijing.
With the permits, Baidu itself will look to deploy 10 driverless Apollo Go vehicles in the Beijing Yizhuang Economic Development Zone. The area is an active center of autonomous driving in China, with city officials exploring pathways to operate AVs between the Zone and the city’s nearby airport. Establishing this route would in turn enable new commercial autonomous driving logistics operations for the wider Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
