Chinese tech companies Apollo Go and Baidu’s Pony.ai announced Thursday that they have received permission from Beijing city authorities to remove the security driver for part of their robotaxi business in the city’s suburbs.
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BEIJING – China’s capital has taken a step closer to allowing ordinary people to use robotic taxis without a driver.
In a first for the country, two Chinese companies — Baidu’s Apollo Go and Pony.ai — announced Thursday that they have received permission from Beijing city authorities to remove the security driver for part of their robotaxi business in the city’s suburbs .
The cars still need an employee to sit inside, but not necessarily in the driver’s seat anymore.
It’s a step towards companies being able to run a robotaxi business without having to pay for staff to man the cars – eliminating the cost of a taxi driver entirely. It remains unclear when the Chinese government will allow robo-taxis to charge fares for journeys with no human staff in the cars.
In the US, Alphabet’s Waymo and GM subsidiary Cruise can already operate public robotic taxis without human personnel in the vehicles. Laws on testing robo-taxis and charging drivers vary by city and state.
Waymo may charge customers for its robo-taxis operating in Arizona while Cruise awaits final approval to charge passengers in San Francisco.
Tu Le, founder of Beijing-based consultancy Sino Auto Insights, pointed out that GM Cruise can only operate its driverless robotaxi service in San Francisco at night, while Beijing’s recent easing of restrictions allows the nearly driverless robotaxi to operate during the day.
This would allow Chinese operators to collect more data during periods of higher traffic.
Under the Beijing city’s new approval, Baidu said it could operate 10 robotic taxis without safety drivers and plans to add 30 more such vehicles at an unspecified future date.
Pony.ai will initially be able to operate four robotic taxis without a safety driver under the new rules and expects to add more in the future, a spokesman said.
Beijing authorities in the Yizhuang suburb confirmed in a press conference on Thursday that Baidu and Pony.ai have received the new Robotaxi approvals. The government tripled the area of operations to about 23 square miles.
A busy half year for changes in the Robotaxi rules in China
The rules for testing and operating robotic taxis also vary in China depending on the region.
The city of Beijing’s latest move comes less than six months since the city government allowed Baidu and Pony.ai to start charging robotic taxis in the suburban Yizhuang district. The permit to collect fares was the first in a major city in China.
Baidu said its robotaxi business Apollo Go started collecting fares in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality and a smaller central China city of Yangquan in February. The cars still need a safety driver.
On Sunday, Nansha District in the southern city of Guangzhou gave Pony.ai’s technology-powered robotic taxis the same designation as traditional taxis — the first such license in China. The license allows Pony.ai to collect fares in the district. The cars currently have safety drivers.
— CNBC’s Michael Wayland contributed to this report.