Chinese internet giant Baidu launched its Apollo Go Robotaxi trials in Beijing last week, becoming the first company to offer self driving passenger transport service in the capital city.
The company launched its first autonomous taxi trials in Changsha in Hunan province in April, followed by downtown Cangzhou in Hebei province in August.
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In Beijing, the company plans to operate a fleet of 40 autonomous vehicles in a test area covering 700km of road, mainly in the Yizhuang, Haidian and Shunyi districts.
The vehicles will be manned by a backup driver for safety reasons.
The Apollo Go Robotaxi service is available to the public once they register on the Baidu Maps app or the Apollo website.
Baidu corporate vice president and general manager of its intelligent driving division, Li Zhenyu, told reporters "with our technology and platform advantages, we will contribute more to the development of autonomous driving and smart transportation in Beijing and to support the city in becoming a world-leading AI innovation hub".
Last month Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group's ride hailing subsidiary Caocao launched trials of its autonomous taxi service in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.
