Baidu will offer? driverless robotaxi services in Chongqing and Wuhan

Baidu is investing heavily in autonomous driving . As we know, the Internet giant is pursuing the development of robotaxi services in China through Apollo Go . Recently, the company & agrave; had received the green light to experiment with robotaxi services within the city; of Beijing, using self-driving cars in which & egrave; there is only one safety operator sitting in the front passenger seat.

Now, the company is taking another important step forward in its strategy, thanks to the arrival of new permits that will allow it to offer paid robotaxi services in cities; of Chongqing and Wuhan . Compared to what can & ograve; already to do in Beijing, Apollo Go may & agrave; charge for the transport service. Furthermore, in this case the cars will be completely without security personnel on board.

As Baidu points out, once its cars are put on the road in these cities & agrave; will be the first time a self-driving vehicle company will be able to offer a completely driverless ride-hailing service in China.

< p> In order to operate on the roads, however, robotaxis must respect some specific rules . For example, in Wuhan, Baidu's service will operate; from 9:00 to 17:00 and will cover; an area of ​​13 square kilometers of a specific area of ​​the city. Instead, the service that will be launched in Chongqing will be held from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm in an area of ​​30 square kilometers in Yongchuan District. In every city & agrave; 5 fifth generation Apollo robotaxis will operate.

The areas in which it will be & agrave; present Baidu are not densely populated and feature several new wide roads that facilitate the operation of self-driving cars. In Chongqing, the Yongchuan District & egrave; used in the past for self-driving car tests, in which 30 robotaxis traveled 1 million km. The Wuhan area in which it will operate the Apollo Go robotaxi service has roads equipped with V2X technology that allows cars to & quot; talk & quot; with road infrastructures.

SIXTH GENERATION ROBOTAXI We recall that Badu had recently presented his sixth generation robotaxi which will be; on the road in 2023. It is an electric model built from scratch and not adapting cars already; existing. Will dispose of 38 sensors: 8 LiDAR, 6 millimeter wave radar, 12 ultrasonic radar and 12 cameras. By presenting the car, Baidu also announced that it had managed to limit its cost to around $ 37,000.

A computer inside a smartphone? Motorola Moto G100? on offer today at 349 euros .