Robotaxi Apollo Go will supply services outside China..

The Chinese net giant Baidu plans to launch its Apollo Go robot service outside China, as the race for the commercialization of autonomous vehicles is gaining momentum. Baidu's decision takes place at a time erstwhile American Tesla is preparing to present her robotox and another Chinese players are besides looking at abroad markets in the hope of taking the lead in the race for dominance in the autonomous driving sector.

Apollo Go presently serves 1 of the largest robotic fleets in China, where it provides services in more than 10 cities. Provides full unmanned journeys including

• Wuhan,
• Beijing,
• Chongqing and
• Shenzhen,

According to the company's latest financial statements, in the second 4th of this year the robotox Apollo Go made 899,000 journeys, an increase of 26% a year.

Baidu began talks with abroad car manufacturers, travel sharing platforms and another technology companies to implement Apollo Go outside China through local partnerships. The time of the launch of the services and locations of the abroad projects Apollo Go has not yet been finalized.

Similarly, Pony.ai, a leading Autonomous Vehicle Starter in China, is looking at Southeast Asia, Europe and the mediate East. The company signed a Memorandum of knowing with the Singapore taxi operator ComfortDelGro, preparing to launch the Pony.ai robot service in Singapore and another countries this year.

WeRide, another Chinese vehicle improvement company, announced a partnership with Uber in September. The rideshare platform will introduce WeRide robotics to the United arabian Emirates and another countries. Uber, however, said that the partnership "doesn't foresee any launch in the United States or China".

WeRide filed for entry into the U.S. stock marketplace with a valuation of up to $5 billion earlier this year, but the IPO was delayed.

It seems improbable that Chinese robotic players could operate in the US, given that the Department of Commerce announced in September that it is planning to ban Chinese software in autonomous vehicles operating in the United States. The proposed simplification requires public consultation and will be finalised later this year.

Tesla's launch of robotxi service is expected to be the main catalyst for the autonomous vehicle industry, which faces many formal adversities on the road to commercialisation of autonomous driving technology. This did not escape the attention of Chinese authorities, which encourage companies specialising in the investigation and improvement of autonomous vehicles to lead the race of autonomous vehicles. As in many previously observed cases, the authorities besides supply friendly government policies and subsidies to their players.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, Beijing issued a full of 16,000 test licences for autonomous vehicles, more than any another country. A full of 32,000 kilometres of roads in China were opened to test autonomous vehicles.

The Chinese government besides encourages companies to travel abroad so that we can have the advantage first before Tesla or another American companies take the initiative. The Tesla robotxi plan triggered an alarm in both Chinese government and Chinese companies: they gotta accelerate to avoid falling behind.

Source: Nikkei Asia

Editorial: Leszek B.

Email: [email protected]

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