Baidu BEIJING — Chinese technology company Baidu said Monday it has become the first robotaxi operator in China to receive licenses to sell rides without a human driver or staff member inside the vehicles. Local government approvals allow Baidu’s Apollo Go robotaxi business to eliminate human staff costs in some cases. The initial scale of the licenses is small: 10 robotaxis split between two suburban areas of Wuhan and Chongqing, two major Chinese cities. In April, Baidu and rival robotaxi operator Pony.ai received approval from a suburban Beijing district to operate robotaxis without human drivers. But the Chinese capital still requires human staff to sit in the robotaxi with passengers. Municipal authorities across China have issued a growing number of licenses in the past year allowing robotaxi companies to operate and charge fares in select areas. In the US, Alphabet’s Waymo and General Motors subsidiary Cruise can already operate public robo-taxis without human personnel in the vehicles. Laws on robotaxi testing and charging riders vary by city and state. Baidu claimed to have received more than one million orders for robot rides. In the first three months of the year, the company said it made 196,000 rides. Baidu is set to announce its second quarter results on August 30.
