Baidu’s Apollo Go self-driving robotaxi just said hello to the world, and it just passed a pretty big milestone, too.
From my story at Forbes:
Baidu’s Apollo Go has reached 250,000 weekly autonomous taxi rides, matching the scale reported by Waymo in the U.S. a while back, and is emerging as a major global competitor in self-driving transportation.
Unlike Waymo, which modifies existing vehicles like the Jaguar I-PACE, Apollo Go uses a purpose-built robotaxi called the Apollo RT6 that costs under $30,000 and features Level 4 autonomy, battery swapping, and a high-density sensor and compute suite.
Apollo Go is already operating in several major Chinese cities and is expanding internationally, with upcoming deployments planned in Germany, the UK, and Dubai. The milestone signals that China’s autonomous driving industry is not only catching up but may soon challenge Western leadership in robotaxi scale, cost efficiency, and geographic reach.