Automated driving project cumulative contracts reach $1.6b
Apollo Go continued to progress rapidly and remained the largest autonomous ride-hailing service provider worldwide, Chinese tech giant Baidu said on Tuesday, highlighting the robust development of China’s automated driving technology.
Apollo Go provided more than 474,000 rides in the third quarter of 2022, up 311 percent year-over year and 65 percent quarter-over-quarter, Baidu said in its financial report.
Baidu added that its cumulative contracts reached 11.4 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) recently.
Like Baidu, many autonomous driving companies in China have been striving to advance the technology and accelerate its commercialization as soon as possible.
On Monday, Pony.ai and Baidu were granted permission by the Beijing government to open the unmanned test qualification of autonomous driving with “no one in the front row and people in the back row”.
For auto companies, Tencent mainly provides core capabilities such as cloud, and is committed to being a co-builder of the new ecology of the smart transportation industry, Zhong Xiangping, who is responsible for Tencent smart transportation and mobility, told the Global Times on Thursday.
Thanks to continuous technology innovation and policy support, China has made steady strides in autonomous driving, from running trials in semi-closed areas to venturing onto open roads.
In February 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments jointly issued a guideline to promote the innovation and development of intelligent vehicles.
In 2019, the provincial capital Guangzhou took the lead in the country in permitting road tests for autonomous driving. Now, the city’s self-driving distance has reached 2.55 million kilometers, according to Xinhua News Agency.