Chinese technology company Baidu announced on Monday that it may sell some robot taxi rides without any human personnel in the vehicles.
Baidu
BEIJING — Chinese technology company Baidu announced on Friday that it can now drive a robot axle in a part of the capital Beijing without human staff or drivers inside.
The move eliminates the labor cost of operating self-driving taxis — up to the number of cars allowed.
The government approval initially covers 10 vehicles in the Beijing suburb of Yizhuang, which is home to many companies such as JD.com.
The suburb is the primary location for Baidu’s robot axis testing and operation on public roads in the city of Beijing. In November 2021, local authorities allowed Baidu and rival robotaxi operator Pony.ai to charge prices for rides.
Public transit users can book heavily subsidized robot ax rides through the companies’ apps.
Baidu shares 12 months performance.
Baidu shares briefly rose more than 15% in Hong Kong trading on Friday.
The stock closed at an eight-week low Thursday after the company unveiled its artificial intelligence-powered Ernie bot, a Chinese-language rival to ChatGPT. CEO Robin Li said the company’s Ernie bot was not perfect and stressed the need to improve the product.