Baidu has unveiled its new driverless autonomous taxi

Autonomous vehicles in Beijing

Tech giant Baidu has revealed the new vehicle that will be added to its Apollo Go fleet of autonomous taxis. The reason for the Apollo RT6, a vehicle that has the skills of a driver with 20 years of experience. For now, Chinese law requires the presence of a safety driver in vehicles, but one day the RT6’s detachable steering wheel will be replaced with extra seats, vending machines, desks or gaming consoles.

There has been a significant reduction in the cost of the RT6, which costs just 250,000 yuan (€36,000), while the previous models cost 480,000 yuan.

This huge cost reduction will allow us to deploy tens of thousands of autonomous vehicles across China. We are moving towards a future where taking a robo-taxi will cost half the price of today.

The RT6s will join Baidu’s fleet in the second half of 2023, and soon 100,000 of them will be on the road.

The vehicle has level 4 autonomous capabilities – without human intervention – and has built-in 8 LiDARs, a 6mm wavelength radar, 12 ultrasonic sensors and 12 cameras.

Baidu’s robo-taxis are already on trial in 10 Chinese cities from 2020, offering over one million rides to customers. In April, Baidu secured the necessary permits to deploy driverless robo-taxis on the open roads of Beijing.