Baidu has announced that its fully driverless autonomous taxi service will be hitting the streets of Beijing from May 2, making it the first available paid robotaxi service in China.
Its Apollo Go service will initially be available at Shougang Park -- one of the venues for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics -- where passengers can travel between sport halls, work areas, coffee shops, hotels, and be available to shuttle athletes and staff during the Olympics.
Using the Apollo Go app, passengers can locate a self-driving taxi in the vicinity and hail a driverless ride through a self-service process. Once the car arrives, users are required to scan a QR code and health code on the car for identify verification and COVID-19 contact tracing before the doors of the autonomous unlock. Once a passenger has boarded, they push the "start the journey" button for the ride to begin.
The company, however, emphasised before any trip begins the system will go through "all the passenger safety protocol checks" including ensuring that all seat belts are fastened and doors are shut, and that a human operators will be able remotely access the vehicle over 5G during "exceptional" emergencies.
百度首批无人网约车开始运营,5月2日起可在北京约车
4月29日,百度方面宣布,作为中国首批“共享无人车”的百度Apollo无人驾驶Robotaxi正式开启常态化商业运营,向公众全面开放。5月2日起,公众通过百度Apollo GO App约车,可以在北京首钢园等区域,约到自动驾驶出行平台Apollo GO提供的“共享无人车”。