Baidu Receives Permit To Operate Driverless Taxis In Shenzhen

Baidu Inc, a Chinese technology company, announced on Friday that it has received regulatory approval to provide driverless ride-hailing services in Shenzhen.

Its fleet of robotaxis, known as Apollo Go, will be authorised to operate throughout an area of 188 square kilometres in China's southern tech capital Shenzhen, making it the company's fourth city in which its autonomous cars will be allowed to operate.

Baidu also stated that it intends to deploy a further 200 fully autonomous robotaxis this year.

Baidu, Inc. is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Beijing's Haidian District that specialises in Internet-related services, products, and artificial intelligence (AI). It is one of the world's largest AI and Internet companies. The group's holding company is registered in the Cayman Islands. Robin Li and Eric Xu founded Baidu in January 2000. Baidu began with RankDex, an early search engine created by Robin Li in 1996 before launching Baidu in 2000.

Baidu is the world's second largest search engine, with a 76.05% market share in China's search engine market. Baidu became the first Chinese business to be featured in the NASDAQ-100 index in December 2007. Baidu's market capitalization increased to $99 billion in May 2018. Baidu became the first Chinese company to join the Partnership on AI, a computer ethics organisation based in the United States, in October 2018.