SINGAPORE—China took a notable regulatory step in the field of driverless taxis, with two cities giving
Baidu Inc.
BIDU -1.61%
approval to operate ride-hailing services without a driver or a person overseeing safety in the vehicle.
The Chinese search-engine giant, which already operates self-driving taxis, plans to add five unmanned cars each to the cities of Wuhan and Chongqing, it said. These vehicles will run in designated areas of those cities during the daytime, when there tends to be more traffic on the road, the company said. The approvals also allow Baidu to charge users for the rides, it said.
China, seeking to catch up to the U.S. in the field of autonomous driving, has been increasingly active in setting up regulations that allow self-driving vehicles on public roads. Establishing such a regulatory framework helps clarify rules and responsibilities and opens up roads for companies to run businesses.
This month, the southern metropolis of Shenzhen started implementing new rules that say unmanned driverless cars can only run in designated areas, and that service operators of such cars will be held responsible in the case of traffic accidents.
The issuing of permits to Baidu highlights that Chinese regulators have established basic rules to govern a new area of business, said
Wei Dong,
vice president of Baidu’s intelligence driving division. More than a dozen cities in China have set up pilot areas for testing driverless vehicles on public roads since authorities started approving such tests in 2020.
In the U.S., General Motors Co.’s Cruise LLC in June received a permit to charge for fully driverless rides at nighttime in San Francisco, while Waymo LLC, an
Alphabet Inc.
unit, earlier this year started to operate cars without any human control, also in San Francisco. Waymo’s rides are free and only available to its staff.
In Wuhan, in central China, Baidu will operate its service in a roughly 5-square-mile designated area, while in the southwestern city of Chongqing, in an area of about 12 square miles, the company said.
Driverless robotaxis have already been approved to run in certain areas of Beijing, but a safety person is required to sit next to the driver’s seat. Last month, Baidu and Pony.ai, a rival backed by
Toyota Motor Corp.
, received commercial permits for such services there.
Baidu, based in Beijing, plans to double the size of its robotaxi fleet in China to more than 600 cars by the October-December quarter, Mr. Wei said. For every two robotaxis in service, Baidu has one staffer monitor the vehicles remotely, he said.
Jin Jianbing, an e-commerce worker in Beijing who has been on Baidu robotaxi rides said he would be excited to try the new service, but wouldn’t immediately use it with his family. He believes in the safety of autonomous vehicles, he said, but added: “I’d be conservative with the elderly and children.”
Write to Raffaele Huang at [email protected]
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