Category: Self-driving

Self-driving chip maker Black Sesame files for HK listing

Black Sesame is the world's third largest supplier of automotive SoCs with high computing power by 2022 shipments.

(Image credit: Black Sesame Technologies)

Black Sesame Technologies, a self-driving chip startup, has filed for a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is expected to be the first Chinese company to go public in the area.

Black Sesame has not yet announced the number of shares it plans to issue or the amount of capital it will raise, but has provided a detailed description of its business, according to a prospectus released today.

Founded in 2016, Black Sesame is a supplier dedicated to automotive SoCs and solutions, and was one of the first companies in China to lay out its presence in the autonomous driving chip space.

In January 2018, Black Sesame announced the completion of a Series A+ financing round of nearly RMB 100 million, led by Capital.

The company's products include the Huashan series of autonomous driving SoCs and recently launched the Wudang series of cross-domain SoCs.

Black Sesame is the world's third largest supplier by shipments of automotive SoCs high computing power in 2022, its prospectus said, citing data from Frost & Sullivan.

Black Sesame has received intent orders for 15 models from 10 automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, and has partnered with more than 30 automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.

Black Sesame's revenue in 2020, 2021 and 2022 were RMB 53.02 million ($7.32 million), RMB 60.5 million and RMB 165 million, respectively.

It will invest RMB 255 million, RMB 594 million and RMB 766 million in R&D in these three years, respectively.

In 2020, 2021 and 2022, Black Sesame's annual adjusted net loss were RMB 273 million, RMB 614 million and RMB 700 million, respectively.

Black Sesame expects its net loss to increase significantly in 2023, as it is in the process of expanding its business and operations in the automotive SoC and solutions market and continues to invest in research and development.

The company provided products and solutions to 89 Chinese and overseas customers in 2022, shipping more than 25,000 SoC products and contributing 86 percent of annual revenue.

Based on 2022 shipments, Black Sesame's share of the market for SoCs with high computing power in China and globally were 5.2 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively, according to its prospectus.

($1 = RMB 7.2466)

Dongfeng to build smart driving platform based on Black Sesame's chips

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Chinese self-driving truck startup sued by Pony reportedly winding down

Just 19 months old, Qingtian Truck is nearing a shutdown and employees have been dismissed, according to local media.

(Image from Qingtian Truck website)

A Chinese self-driving truck startup that was previously sued by Pony.ai is reportedly winding down, the latest setback seen in the space.

Just 19 months old, Qingtian Truck is nearing a shutdown, with employees having been displaced and its operating entity facing liquidation, according to a report by local media outlet Jiemian today.

Qingtian Truck's engineers have also been leaving the company, the report said, citing self-driving industry sources.

The company's registration information has not yet changed and its operating status remains intact, although its website has not been updated with company news since January, the report noted.

Qingtian Truck was founded in Beijing in November 2021 to work on self-driving truck technology.

It received an angel funding round of nearly $10 million from 5Y Capital, the only round it has disclosed, just two and a half months after its founding.

In August 2022, Pony.ai, a self-driving startup backed by Toyota Motor and Capital, sued Qingtian Truck and its key executives, Pan Zhenhao and Sun Youhan, alleging that the latter had infringed on Pony.ai's trade secrets.

Pan and Sun are two of the founders of Qingtian Truck and had worked for Pony.ai.

Pony.ai asked the court to order Qingtian Truck to stop infringing on its trade secrets and ask it to pay economic damages and expenses totaling RMB 60 million ($8.3 million).

In April, Qingtian Truck filed a countersuit against Pony.ai, claiming that the latter had abused its intellectual property rights and engaged in unfair competition.

In June, the two announced that they had reached a settlement, each withdrawing its lawsuit against the other.

It's unclear what the main reason is for the current woes facing Qingtian Truck, but investors appear to be increasingly cautious about the prospects for commercialization in the autonomous driving space at a time of slowing economic growth in China.

On May 15, Shanghai Securities News reported that e-commerce giant Alibaba's DAMO Academy is no longer retaining its autonomous driving business and team, which is being fully integrated into its logistics arm Cainiao.

This means that Alibaba's self-driving business is entering a whole new phase of moving from cutting-edge technology exploration in the lab to applications in real-world scenarios, the report noted.

($1 = RMB 7.2135)

Alibaba backtracks on autonomous driving R&D

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French auto parts maker Valeo to invest in Didi’s autonomous driving unit

Valeo and Didi Autonomous Driving will set up a joint R&D team to work on safety systems for L4 robotaxis.

French auto parts maker Valeo to invest in Didi's autonomous driving unit-CnEVPost

(Image credit: Didi)

French auto parts maker Valeo will invest in Didi Global's autonomous driving division to bet on the fast-growing segment in China.

On May 29, Valeo and Didi Autonomous Driving entered into a strategic partnership and investment agreement in which Valeo intends to invest in the latter and will jointly develop safety solutions for L4 robotaxis.

Valeo and Didi revealed the development in their respective press releases but did not mention the amount of the planned investment.

"Today, we are proud to sign this agreement to invest in DiDi Autonomous Driving and join our R&D efforts to develop safety solutions," Geoffrey BOUQUOT, Valeo Executive Vice President Strategy and CTO, said.

Valeo and Didi Autonomous Driving will form a joint R&D team to work on safety systems for L4 robotaxis.

To provide additional safety to users, Valeo and Didi Autonomous Driving will complement the main system of L4 standard technology with another set of hardware and software that will enable robotaxi to navigate autonomously and safely, according to their press releases.

This Automated Safety Pilot will provide redundancy for the primary system in the event of a sudden failure, as well as customized safety features designed for specific operating scenarios.

The customized intelligent safety solution will be able to take over and control the robotaxi to perform actions that ensure the safety of passengers and other road users.

This intelligent safety solution will initially be deployed on Didi Autonomous Driving's L4 robotaxis, according to their press releases.

Didi's autonomous driving team was founded in 2016, and the ride-hailing giant opened its first overseas AI lab in California in March 2017.

In 2019, Didi began ramping up its bet on autonomous driving, upgrading its autonomous driving division to a standalone company on August 5, 2019.

On April 13, Didi unveiled its driverless concept vehicle Didi Neuron at its autonomous driving open day event, eliminating the driver's seat and expanding the passenger space compared to Didi's first custom car, the D1, which was released in 2020.

Didi's autonomous driving team reached nearly 1,000 people, which is a threefold increase from 2020, Didi Autonomous Driving COO Meng Xing said at the time.

French auto parts maker Valeo to invest in Didi's autonomous driving unit-CnEVPost

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Pony.ai launches robotaxi service with no safety officer on board in Shenzhen after Guangzhou

Pony.ai has previously been approved to provide robotaxi service without a driver in the car in Beijing and Guangzhou.

(Image credit: Pony.ai)

Pony.ai, a Chinese startup backed by Toyota Motor and Capital, has brought its fully unmanned robotaxi service to yet another Chinese mega-city as it continues to advance its self-driving ambitions.

On May 29, Pony.ai received a permit in Shenzhen to conduct robotaxi services without a safety officer in the vehicle in the city's core areas, the only one to receive the permit in the city so far, according to a press release today.

Founded in late 2016, Pony.ai has established R&D centers in Silicon Valley, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai, and is running robotaxi operations locally.

In late 2019, NIO Capital said it invested in Pony.ai for an undisclosed amount when it announced the completion of a more than $200 million fundraising. In February 2020, Pony.ai announced it had raised $400 million from Toyota.

Pony.ai launched the robotaxi app PonyPilot in December 2018 and received a permit to operate the robotaxi service for a fee in Beijing in November 2021.

On March 17, Pony.ai announced that it received a license in Beijing to operate fully unmanned robotaxi services within a 60-square-kilometer area in the Yizhuang Economic Development Zone.

On April 26, the company said it was granted permission to offer robotaxi service without a safety officer in the vehicle in Guangzhou, when it put 17 robotaxis into operation.

The expansion of the driverless footprint to Shenzhen confirms Pony.ai's ability to quickly roll out self-driving technology in different cities, it said.

Driverless vehicles need to undergo rigorous testing before hitting the road, including remote scenarios, extreme scenarios, safety management, network and data security, risk response, and a comprehensive assessment by experts and government departments, Pony.ai said.

Successfully passing these tests proves Pony.ai's technical prowess, it said.

To date, Pony.ai has more than 1 million kilometers of fully unmanned testing and nearly 200,000 paid travel orders, the company said.

Pony.ai starts offering robotaxi service in Guangzhou without safety officer in vehicles

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Alibaba backtracks on autonomous driving R&D

Alibaba's DAMO Academy's autonomous driving lab will lay off about 70 percent of its staff, while others will be transferred to the e-commerce giant's logistics arm, according to local media.

Alibaba backtracks on autonomous driving R&D-CnEVPost

(Image credit: DAMO Academy)

Alibaba, one of China's most powerful tech giants, is backing away from autonomous driving research and development, highlighting the challenges facing the field.

Alibaba's DAMO Academy no longer retains its autonomous driving business and team, which was merged into its logistics unit Cainiao, the Shanghai Securities News said in a report today, citing people from the e-commerce giant.

This means that Alibaba's autonomous driving business is entering a whole new phase of moving from cutting-edge tech exploration in the lab to applications in real-world scenarios, the report noted.

The Shanghai Securities News report did not provide more information, but according to a subsequent report by Jiemian, another local media outlet, not all of DAMO Academy's autonomous driving business was merged into Cainiao, but rather a significant layoff will be made.

DAMO Academy's autonomous driving lab previously had more than 300 people, with 80-90 receiving the option to move to work at Cainiao, while about 200 others, or about 70 percent, will be laid off, according to Jiemian.

One of the key reasons Cainiao was unable to take on all members of the team was the limited investment it was willing to make, the report said, citing an Alibaba insider.

The team that will be incorporated into Cainiao will be primarily responsible for keeping the autonomous driving robot Xiaomanlv, or little donkeys, in business and will not do much expansion, the report said.

Xiaomanlv is an L4 autonomous driving product launched by DAMO Academy's autonomous driving lab in September 2020 to serve the last three kilometers of delivery, take-out and fresh food delivery.

To date, the autonomous driving robot has entered more than 200 universities and communities, with a fleet size exceeding 500 vehicles.

It is worth noting that DAMO Academy's self-driving lab has undergone previous management changes.

In January 2022, the lab's then-head, Wang Gang, left after three years on board. In March this year, his successor, Chen Junbo, also left after one year in the position.

Alibaba's move underscores the huge challenges facing autonomous driving R&D.

At the end of March, BYD chairman and president Wang Chuanfu said at an earnings meeting that autonomous driving is nonsense that comes out of capital coercion.

BYD has more than 600,000 employees, and the company can't even replace all its workers with machines, because the machines can't simulate every scenario of manual operation, he said.

"It's not even possible to do unattended work on a fixed production line, let alone the ever-changing actual road conditions," Wang said at the time.

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Pony.ai starts offering robotaxi service in Guangzhou without safety officer in vehicles

This is the first such permit issued in Guangzhou, where Pony.ai's 17 robotaxis have been approved to provide robotaxi service without safety officers.

Pony.ai starts offering robotaxi service in Guangzhou without safety officer in vehicles-CnEVPost

(Image credit: Pony.ai)

Pony.ai, a Chinese self-driving startup backed by Toyota Motor and NIO Capital, has been granted a permit for robotaxi service without safety officers in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, after receiving a similar permit in Beijing last month.

This is the first such permit issued in Guangzhou, where Pony.ai's 17 robotaxis were approved to provide the services, according to a press release today.

Within 803 square kilometers of Guangzhou's Nansha district, passengers will have the opportunity to call a real driverless vehicle via the mobile app PonyPilot+, Pony.ai said.

During the ride, passengers who need remote assistance can communicate in real-time with backstage personnel in the vehicle by voice, the company said.

On March 17, Pony.ai announced that it had received a permit in Beijing to operate a fully unmanned robotaxi service within 60 square kilometers of the Yizhuang Economic Development Zone.

Founded in late 2016, Pony.ai has set up R&D centers in Silicon Valley, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai, and is running robotaxi operations locally.

In late 2019, NIO Capital said it invested in Pony.ai when it announced the completion of more than $200 million in fundraising. In February 2020, Pony.ai announced it had raised $400 million from Toyota.

Pony.ai starts offering robotaxi service in Guangzhou without safety officer in vehicles-CnEVPost

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

Pony.ai launched the robotaxi app PonyPilot in December 2018 and received a permit to operate the robotaxi service for a fee in Beijing in November 2021.

To date, Pony.ai has accumulated 21 million kilometers of autonomous driving, more than 1 million kilometers of fully unmanned testing and nearly 200,000 paid orders, it said today.

Baidu's robotaxi platform Apollo Go gets permit to offer fully driverless rides in Beijing

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Haomo’s self-driving ambitions leap forward with launch of DriveGPT

DriveGPT will reshape the route of vehicle intelligence technology, allowing assisted driving to evolve faster and autonomous driving to come sooner, said Haomo CEO.

(Image credit: Haomo)

The popularity of ChatGPT has led players in the autonomous driving industry to start expecting more from artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Now, a Chinese startup has released a large model of self-driving cognition, becoming the first in the industry to do so.

Great Wall Motor-backed startup Haomo.AI Technology officially launched DriveGPT today, after it previewed the AI large model in February.

DriveGPT is the first generative large model for autonomous driving that will reshape the technological path to automotive intelligence, the Beijing-based company announced today at its 8th Haomo AI Day event.

The AI model builds RLHF (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback) technology by bringing in driving data for continuous optimization of self-driving cognitive decision models.

The goal of DriveGPT is to achieve end-to-end autonomous driving, and at this stage, it is mainly used to solve the cognitive decision problem of autonomous driving, said Gu Weihao, CEO of Haomo, at today's event.

DriveGPT has been opened to a limited number of partners, and the first batch includes Beijing Jiaotong University School of Computer and Information Technology, Qualcomm, Volcano Engine, Huawei Cloud, JD Technology, NavInfo, WEY Brand, and Intel.

What is DriveGPT?

GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), essentially solves for the probability of the next word occurring, sampling from a probability distribution and generating a word with each call.

This continuous loop generates a sequence of characters for various downstream tasks. ChatGPT evolved on such a model.

On February 17, as the AI frenzy generated by ChatGPT continues worldwide, Haomo upgraded its large model of self-driving cognition to DriveGPT, calling it the first of its kind in the world of self-driving cognition.

DriveGPT completed model building and validation of the first phase of data with parameters comparable in size to GPT-2, the company said at the time, adding that DriveGPT will continue to introduce large-scale real data next to continuously improve its measurement.

At today's Haomo AI Day, Gu provided more technical details about DriveGPT.

Simply put, DriveGPT is the GPT large model in autonomous driving, which is also solving for the probability of the next Token, according to Gu.

Each call is equivalent to generating a Token based on a sequence of pre-trained Tokens, which are equivalent to a word in natural language processing, except that DriveGPT's Tokens are used to describe driving scenarios.

The sequence of Tokens is a complete time sequence of driving scenarios, including the next possible state of the entire traffic environment and the state of the car.

Under a unified generative framework, DriveGPT can do multiple tasks including planning, decision making and reasoning all together, according to Gu.

DriveGPT's pre-trained model uses 120 billion parameters and is based on 40 million production vehicles' driving data.

In addition to that, Haomo used partially screened human takeover data -- roughly 50,000 Clips -- for training the feedback model, according to Gu.

To easily understand the logic behind this, Gu gives an example:

Suppose we give a prompt to reach a certain target point, this prompt may come from the navigation of a map, or in the future it may come from human voice instructions during voice interaction.

DriveGPT will generate many possible driving styles, some aggressive -- change lanes continuously to overtake and reach the target point quickly, and some will be more steady -- follow other cars to the end.

If there are no other additional prompts, then DriveGPT will follow the optimal results from the feedback training and deliver a result that is more in line with most people's driving preferences.

Coming soon

Haomo is continuing to optimize DriveGPT, and the initial results will first be used in the new Mocha DHT-PHEV with Haomo HPilot 3.0, Gu said.

The Mocha DHT-PHEV is a model of Great Wall Motor's premium brand Wey, and Gu said the model will be available soon.

"We can also provide an excellent driving experience for city NOH (Navigation on HPilot)," Gu said.

In addition to city NOH, scenarios including city cruising, driving shortcut recommendations, and extrication, autonomous driving capabilities are also expected to see new breakthroughs, according to Gu.

"Ultimately we hope to arrive at the ultimate scenario of autonomous driving: driverless," he said, adding, "We believe that DriveGPT will reshape the technological path to vehicle intelligence, allowing assisted driving to evolve faster and autonomous driving to arrive sooner."

Notably, Haomo is one of the strongest players in the autonomous driving space, despite being an under-the-radar startup, especially compared to high-profile local electric vehicle companies.

Haomo was the former autonomous driving division of Great Wall Motor and became an independent company in November 2019. Its core team members come partly from Great Wall Motor's smart driving R&D team and partly from local tech companies.

In September 2022, Funky Cat and Wey Coffee 01 from Great Wall Motor achieved results comparable to the Tesla Model Y in a European safety test.

Both the Ora Funky Cat and the Wey Coffee 01 were equipped with assisted driving technology provided by Haomo, which was a major reason for their high scores, especially on Safety Assist, at the time.

At the 7th AI Day event held today, January 5, Haomo announced MANA OASIS, an autonomous driving computing center launched by it and Volcano Engine, a cloud service platform owned by ByteDance, with a total computing power of 670 PFLOPS, the largest in China at the time.

The computing power support provided by MANA OASIS was key to the training and technology becoming available for DriveGPT, Gu said today.

Separately, Haomo chairman Zhang Kai said at today's event that in addition to the new Mocha DHT-PHEV, the second HPilot 3.0-equipped model, Wey Lanshan, will be launched this year.

Haomo's HPilot has been installed in nearly 20 models and has assisted users to drive more than 40 million kilometers, Zhang said.

In overseas markets, vehicles equipped with HPilot have been shipped to regions including the European Union and Israel and delivered to local consumers.

Vehicles equipped with the driving assistance system will be available in the Middle East, South Africa and Australia, and the Mexican and Russian versions of HPilot will be in mass production soon, Zhang said.

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Chinese self-driving startup WeRide plans to start autonomous vehicle testing in Singapore this year

In September 2022, WeRide launched its Singapore company and signed a memorandum of cooperation with a subsidiary of a local public transport operator in November.

(Image credit: WeRide)

Chinese startup WeRide plans to start testing autonomous vehicles in Singapore this year, as it begins to set its sights on Southeast Asian markets.

WeRide will work with Strides, a subsidiary of Singapore's largest public transport operator SMRT, to test and pilot self-driving vehicles in the Southeast Asian country, according to an article yesterday on its official WeChat account.

In September 2022, WeRide established the Singapore branch and signed a memorandum of cooperation with Strides in November, according to the article.

SMRT and another Singaporean investment house, K3 Ventures, are both strategic investors in WeRide, and they will help the company grow in Singapore and Southeast Asian markets, the article said.

On March 27, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong kicked off a six-day visit to China and visited WeRide's headquarters in Guangzhou, said the article.

WeRide's office in Singapore is hiring talents there, and the company will use the office as a regional development center for Asia Pacific operations, according to its founder and CEO Han Xu.

Founded in Guangzhou in 2017, WeRide's products include Robotaxi, Mini Robobus, Robovan, Robo Street Sweeper and SAE L2-L4 advanced smart driving solutions.

WeRide is now testing and operating driverless vehicles in 25 cities in 5 countries, according to the article.

The company has a fleet of more than 500 self-driving vehicles and more than 16 million miles of autonomous driving, WeRide said.

On March 13, Bloomberg reported that WeRide has confidentially filed for an initial public offering in the US and hopes to raise as much as $500 million.

WeRide is poised to go public as early as the first half of this year, according to the report.

In March 2022, local media outlet LatePost reported that WeRide had closed a new round of over $400 million in financing, with a post-investment valuation of $4.4 billion.

Investors in the round included GAC Group, Bosch, China-Arab Investment Funds, and Carlyle Group, the report said.

WeRide unveils smaller, lower-cost self-driving sensor suite

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Alibaba-backed DeepRoute unveils self-driving solution that doesn’t require HD maps

Passenger cars integrated with Driver 3.0 will be available at an established car brand this year, DeepRoute said.

(Car integrated with Driver 3.0 HD map-free driving smoothly in Shanghai. Image credit: DeepRoute)

Many automakers in China are trying to move away from reliance on high-definition maps as they develop technology. Now, a technology provider has a solution that promises to speed up that process.

DeepRoute, a local self-driving startup backed by Alibaba, today unveiled its new Driver 3.0 solution, which it says is a solution that eliminates the need for high-definition maps and can facilitate mass production for automakers.

DeepRoute.ai is one of the first companies to successfully complete public road tests of autonomous driving without HD maps, thus breaking down the limitations imposed by geo-fencing, it said.

The company is also among the first to win production contracts from automakers to produce self-driving cars for consumer use, it said, adding that vehicles integrated with the Driver 3.0 self-driving solution will hit the market in 2023.

DeepRoute shared a video showing lane-level information around the car being generated in real-time without HD maps.

Driving on its own in Shanghai during rush hour traffic, the car interacts safely with pedestrians, e-bikes and others using the road and remains consistent in all road conditions.

It is capable of adaptive cruise control (ACC), stop and go, obstacle avoidance, unprotected left turns, and other technically complex maneuvers.

Driver 3.0 includes two versions of its autonomous driving solution for automakers, D-PRO and D-AIR.

D-PRO costs $2,000 in hardware and includes operations and features that do not require HD maps, such as Valet Parking Assist (VPA), and point-to-point navigation on all roads without operational design domain (ODD) restrictions.

D-AIR costs $1,000 in hardware and focuses on driver assistance that does not require HD maps, such as Automatic Cruise Control (ACC), Lane Centering Control (LCC), and Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB).

Both versions of the Driver 3.0 solution accelerate automakers’ mass production plans because they comprehensively address concerns about the high cost of mapping and maintenance and the limitations of geo-fencing, according to DeepRoute.

“We focus on rapidly bringing highly advanced, affordable autonomous driving to automobile OEMs,” said Maxwell Zhou, CEO of DeepRoute.

Unlike most other autonomous driving solution providers, DeepRoute is focused on developing an autonomous driving framework and commercializing it by deploying ADAS capabilities first, Zhou said.

DeepRoute strategized the HD map-free approach back in 2020 and began working with OEMs last year based on this approach, he said, adding that without relying on HD maps, smart driving will be available everywhere and affordable for both automakers and consumers.

Passenger cars integrated with Driver 3.0 will be available at an established car brand this year, DeepRoute said, without mentioning the brand’s name.

DeepRoute was founded in February 2019 and became the first company to be able to conduct robotaxi passenger tests in Shenzhen in April 2021.

On September 14, 2021, DeepRoute announced the closing of a $300 million Series B round led by Alibaba, making it the first such company the e-commerce giant has invested in China.

The high cost of self-driving kits is one of the factors preventing the technology from being used at scale, and one of the goals of DeepRoute’s efforts over the past few years has been to bring the cost down.

On December 8, 2021, DeepRoute unveiled Driver 2.0 for under $10,000, nearly the same price as FSD and the lowest recorded in the industry. Driver 2.0 was available in brands including Lincoln and ‘s Geometry at the time of launch.

On April 20, 2022, DeepRoute announced its first fleet of 30 vehicles with the Driver 2.0 solution, which will be put into the company’s robotaxi operation in Shenzhen.

Chinese self-driving startup DeepRoute unveils L4 self-driving solution that costs less than $10,000

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Baidu’s robotaxi platform Apollo Go gets permit to offer fully driverless rides in Beijing

To date, Baidu's Apollo Go has been offering fully driverless ride-hailing services in Beijing, Wuhan and Chongqing.  | Baidu.US | Baidu.HK

(Image credit: Baidu)

Baidu's ride-hailing service platform Apollo Go has won a permit to offer fully driverless rides in Beijing, allowing it to expand the service to three Chinese megacities.

The search engine giant announced the development today, saying it is the first provider of fully driverless robotaxi services in the capital city of any country worldwide. Apollo Go has previously been approved to offer the service in Wuhan and Chongqing.

Baidu Apollo will deploy a total of 10 fully driverless vehicles in Beijing's Yizhuang Economic Development Zone, according to a press release from the company.

Apollo Go is currently providing an average of more than 20 rides per vehicle per day within the area, exceeding the average number of rides taken by traditional online ride-hailing services, Baidu said.

Yizhuang is one of the active hubs for autonomous driving in China. Beijing plans to expand its high-level automated demonstration area in the Yizhuang Economic Development Zone from the existing 60 square kilometers to an eventual 500 square kilometers.

Baidu has been developing autonomous driving technology since 2013 and has accumulated more than 50 million kilometers of testing in Level 4 autonomous driving.

As of the end of January, Apollo Go offered more than 2 million cumulative rides to the public, Baidu said.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, Apollo Go provided 561,000 rides to the public, up 162 percent year-on-year, according to Baidu's fourth-quarter earnings report.

On November 29 last year, Baidu announced that it plans to scale up Apollo's operations in 2023 with fully unmanned self-driving operations in more regions.

Baidu will build the world's largest fully driverless taxi service area in 2023, maintaining its growth momentum as the world's largest robot cab provider, the company said at the time.

Baidu previously announced plans to expand its self-driving mobility service to 65 cities by 2025 and 100 cities by 2030.

Baidu plans to put 200 additional driverless vehicles into operation in 2023

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