China Grants First Driverless Taxi Permits to Baidu, Pony.ai
The first permit for driverless taxis ever to be delivered in China has been granted to the internet services company Baidu along with the rival autonomous car company, Pony.ai. This move proves how governments are getting more tolerant of new technologies, granting them unprecedented permissions.
The new thing about this permit is that it allowed the concerned companies to provide self-driving cars without the obligation of putting a safety driver behind the wheel. Although the presence of a safety supervisor in the front passenger seat is still required.
Baidu will get to work this Thursday with a fleet of 10 autonomous cars, covering an area of (23-square-mile) in suburban Beijing.
It’s worth noting that this is not a new venture for Baidu, they have prior experiences, especially with the Apollo Go ride-hailing service which features autonomous vehicles but with the mandatory presence of a safety driver, a project that’s still in service in multiple large Chinese cities.
This new development is just another step in China’s master plan of becoming the leader in autonomous driving technology on the global stage. This is no easy task especially when you see that similar projects were put in place earlier in other parts of the world, like the Alphabet’s Waymo driverless taxi services in Phoenix, Arizona which has been in service since 2020.
The project also falls right in the middle of Baidu’s diversification plans, the company better known for the search engine has started lately producing an array of new technologically advanced products and services, such as automated personal assistants and AI chips.
To boost customer confidence in their new project, Baidu has released a statement saying that the company has done over 16 million miles of road testing over the last nine years with zero accidents registered.
China hopes that in the next 8 years, more than 70% of its new cars will be at least level 2 self-driving technology. An ambitious goal that shows the country’s commitments toward the universal implementation of advanced technologies.
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