Chinese tech firm Baidu announced today that it has secured the permit to operate its driverless ride-hailing service on the streets of Beijing. The permission is the first of its kind in the city.
The firm got the green light from the Beijing High-level Automated Driving Demonstration Area, which allows ten Baidu vehicles without safety drivers to operate via its Apollo Go Robotaxi. Starting today, Beijing residents can start booking fully autonomous taxi rides through the Apollo Go mobile app.
The permit only covers an area of 60 kilometers within the city and will only allow operations from 10:00am to 4:00pm.
The Beijing-based tech giant said it plans to scale the operation to 30 vehicles in the coming months.
Baidu’s US counterpart has previously secured a permit from California’s Department of Motor Vehicles to begin conducting tests on self-driving cars on public roads.
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