BEIJING, March 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Baidu, Inc.
(NASDAQ:BIDU), a leading AI company with a strong Internet
foundation, received qualifications for 35 vehicles to demonstrate
commercialized autonomous driving operations, and qualifications
for 10 vehicles to conduct driverless testing, by Cangzhou traffic
authorities. These qualifications will allow Baidu to be the first
company in China to experiment
with various monetization mechanisms for autonomous driving
services, marking a landmark step on Baidu Apollo's road to
commercialization.
With these qualifications, Baidu Apollo will be able to roll out
commercialized demonstrations of its smart transportation services
in Cangzhou, and explore various mechanisms for charging customers,
such as discounts, trial tickets, and voluntary payments from
riders, for the first time by any autonomous driving company in
China. In August 2020, Baidu opened the Apollo Go Robotaxi
service in the downtown areas of Cangzhou, which has allowed people
to hail a free robotaxi ride through their smartphone. In addition
to bringing added convenience and safety to the people of Cangzhou,
Baidu's robotaxis are intelligent electric vehicles that
contribute to environmental protection by reducing carbon
emissions.
The qualifications will also enable Baidu to
test driverless vehicles in Cangzhou, the first company
to receive this permission in the city. Baidu Apollo previously
received this permission in Changsha and Beijing in September and December of 2020,
respectively. Baidu is the first and only company approved to
conduct open road driverless testing in the Chinese capital.
Internationally, Baidu Apollo obtained permission in California to conduct driverless testing.
To obtain the Cangzhou qualifications, companies were required
to complete a total of 50,000 kilometers of local testing on open
roads, accompanied by safety drivers, while being responsible for
zero accidents. As of March 1, 2021,
Baidu's Cangzhou fleet accumulated 524,696 kilometers of total test
mileage with each car averaging 17,490 kilometers, a testament to
the safety and reliability of Apollo-powered autonomous
vehicles.
Baidu has been investing in autonomous driving since 2013, and
Apollo is the world's leading open platform for autonomous driving,
with more than 210 partners, 55,000 global developers, and 700,000
lines of open source code. To date, Baidu's Apollo fleet size has
grown to 500 vehicles, which have conducted open road tests in
nearly 30 cities around the world, accumulating more than 7 million
kilometers of testing. In China,
Apollo has obtained 214 autonomous driving licenses, including 161
for carrying passengers. Baidu's Apollo Go Robotaxi service has now
been opened in Beijing,
Changsha, and Cangzhou, carrying
more than 210,000 passengers, and plans to expand to 30 cities in
the next three years.
In recent years, Cangzhou has been a leading city for the
development of autonomous driving. It was the first city in
northern China to carry out manned
tests of autonomous driving and has the third largest
intelligent-connected test road network in the country. With the
latest news, Baidu Apollo and its ecosystem partners will continue
to explore the development path of fully autonomous driving.
About Baidu
Founded in 2000, Baidu's mission is to make the complicated
world simpler through technology. Baidu is a leading AI company
with a strong Internet foundation. Baidu's ADSs trade on the NASDAQ
Global Select Market under the symbol "BIDU". Currently, each ADS
represents eight Class A ordinary shares.
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SOURCE Baidu, Inc.