Baidu's Plan to Expand Driverless Service Overseas

TapTechNews October 9th news, The Wall Street Journal reported today that Baidu is seeking to launch its driverless ride-hailing service overseas in order to expand its competitive advantage beyond mainland China.

Insiders said that Baidu hopes to test and deploy its Apollo Go driverless taxis in regions such as Hong Kong, China, Singapore and the Middle East. Insiders said that Baidu has been discussing relevant plans with enterprises and regulatory agencies in these regions.

A representative of Apollo Go responded that Apollo Go plans to release a new version Apollo 10.0 for its self-driving platform, which is specially designed for global users.

At present, companies in both China and the United States are seeking to deploy autonomous driving technology to a wider range of commercial uses, including both driverless taxi services and assisted driving systems for consumer cars. After many delays, Tesla will release its driverless taxi this week. In addition, Tesla previously said that it is expected to launch its fully autonomous driving system (FSD) in China in the first quarter of next year.

Apollo Go said in August that the company operates more than 400 driverless taxis in Wuhan, which is the company's largest driverless fleet in China. In the second quarter of this year, Baidu provided nearly 900,000 rides in China.

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It is reported that Baidu plans to launch the Apollo Go driverless taxi service in Hong Kong.