Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images BEIJING – The Chinese capital is one step closer to allowing ordinary people to do driverless robotics. In a first for the country, two Chinese companies – Baidu’s Apollo Go and Pony.ai – announced on Thursday that they had received permission from Beijing city authorities to remove a security guide for part of their suburban robot business. city’s. Cars will continue to need a staff member to sit in, but no longer necessarily in the driver’s seat. It’s a move to allow companies to run a robotics business without having to pay for staffing the cars – eliminating the cost of a taxi driver. It remains unclear when the Chinese government would allow robotaxis to charge fares for unmanned car rides. In the US, Alphabet Waymo and GM subsidiary Cruise can already perform public robotics without human personnel in vehicles. Laws for robotics testing and rider charging vary by city and state. Waymo may charge customers for its robotaxis operating in Arizona, while Cruise is awaiting approval for a final license to charge riders in San Francisco. Tu Le, founder of Beijing-based consulting firm Sino Auto Insights, noted that GM’s Cruise can operate the driverless robotaxi service in San Francisco only at night, while the recent easing of restrictions in Beijing allows for almost driverless robotaxis to operate during the day. . This would allow Chinese operators to collect more data during periods of higher traffic. Under the new Beijing city license, Baidu said it could operate 10 robots without safety drivers and plans to add another 30 such vehicles at an unspecified later date. Pony.ai may initially run four robotaxis without security guides under the new rules and expects to add more in the future, a spokesman said. Beijing authorities in Yizhuang suburb confirmed that Baidu and Pony.ai received the new robotaxi approvals at a news conference on Thursday. The government added that the operational area has tripled to about 23 square miles.
A busy six months for China changes the rule of robotaxi
The rules for testing and operating robotics also vary by region in China. Beijing’s latest move comes less than six months after the municipality allowed Baidu and Pony.ai to charge robotaxi fees in the Yizhuang suburb. Fare approval was the first from a major city in China. Baidu said the Apollo Go robotics company then began charging fares in Chongqing Municipality in southwest China and a smaller town in central China in February in Yangquan. Cars still require a safety driver. On Sunday, the Nansha district of southern Guangzhou gave the Pony.ai tech robot the same name as traditional taxis – the first such permit in China. The license allows Pony.ai to charge area fares. The cars currently have safety drivers. – CNBC’s Michael Wayland contributed to this report.
