Robotaxis freed to charge across 60km2 of Beijing
- Reference: 1637826970
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/11/25/baidu_apollo/
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The service, called Apollo Go, will have over 600 pick-up and drop-off points in both commercial and residential areas and will run from 07:00 to 22:00 every day.
"With the service's first-ever commercial deployment on open roads, Apollo Go marks a further step in its accelerating progress towards large-scale commercial operation," said Baidu in a canned statement.
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Users can locate the 67 robotaxis in the fleet with an app that helps them hail a ride, and pay for it.
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Up until now, the service has been in testing mode and rides have been free. As of September 2021, the [4]Apollo L4 vehicle racked up over 10 million test miles (16 million kilometres).
With Beijing's approval to charge for rides, Baidu wants to expand across to 65 cities by 2025 and has ambitions of hitting 100 cities by 2030. The company plans to build 1,000 of the vehicles for deployment over the next three years.
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Pricing has not been revealed, although Baidu did say it could be comparable to existing premium ride-hailing services.
[6]Get FOSS-happy, China tells its financial institutions
[7]Chinese server builder Inspur trains monster text-generating neural network
[8]Baidu unveils AI chip to go in its fancy-pants robocar – and anywhere else someone may want to use it
Alphabet's Waymo, which had a self-driving car go [9]disruptively rogue earlier this year, had been testing its robotaxis in California and Arizona, and even charging for rides in [10]Phoenix .
Intel's self-driving car subsidiary Mobileye [11]announced a partnership with car rental giant Sixt to launch fully autonomous robotaxis in Munich last September. Intel and Sixt plan to make a bajillion dollars from their driverless product once regulatory approvals are secured.
Are you ready to ride a robotaxi? Or would you rather the chance to keep meeting charming human drivers and observe their unique interpretations of safe driving? Let us know in the poll below, or leave us a comment. ®
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[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/17/waymo_robotaxi_malfunction/
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[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/08/intels_mobileye_unveils_first_production/
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I like meeting taxi drivers of indeterminate origin, who have thick accents, don't speak the language well and do not know the city.
Each taxi ride is a trip into the unknown, I love the adrenalin during the ride and the relief of eventually arriving at the correct destination.
Not sure how robo drivers are going to make that any better...
Would you trust a robotaxi
Not to swerve into the path of a HGV or deposit you at the wrong address (this sign says 'gulag', where are you taking me?) if it (mis-)identified you as an enemy of the Chinese state?
Then again, any unperson in Beijing would be toast before they even made it into the taxi, I suspect.
Re: unperson -> gulag
Are you in a country that practices or supports "extraordinary rendition"?
Where is the gap between words?
Robo Taxis sound cute and fun but Robot Axis sounds quite sinister and we should really be careful to determine where the space goes before we endorse this idea.
I don't feel the current tech is safe enough for either the taxi occupants or those around it on the streets. While the bar of the average asian taxi driver (I know, broad brush, it's not that bad everywhere, etc) is a pretty darn low standard to meet, I still think all these robot systems are only fine in "everything normal" situations. Throw in some bad road wear, a missing sign, some fog or smog, etc and things suddenly don't work so well anymore.
You forgot two: Other idiot drivers and stupid pedestrians.
The cynical side of me thinks that these taxis are running on stolen Waymo code anyway...
The fewer taxis I use in life the better
As for robo taxis in Beijing.
No.
Have you seen the mad traffic there?
Huge lorries mixed with cars, farm implements, tiny box cars and the ubiquitous scooter/moped.
It's not riding IN robotaxis that worries me. It's being in their path.