The services will be offered using a fleet of five 5th generation Apollo taxis in each city. In Wuhan, the services will be available from 9 am to 5 pm in the five square miles area of the Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone. In Chongqing, the services will be available from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm in the 11.5 sq. mile area of the Yongchuan District, the press release said.
Earlier this month, the city of Beijing also granted Baidu the permit to run its driverless robotaxi services. However, Baidu could only offer free rides to people as part of its R&D efforts and gauge public response to its technology. More importantly, the Beijing permission comes with a rider that a human operator is seated in the front seat of the vehicle. However, for its commercial services, this wouldn't be a requirement.
Currently, the company's fifth-generation cars are on the roads. Apart from the radar, Lidar, and other cameras onboard these vehicles, the vehicles are also equipped with V2X technology, TechCrunch said in its report. Using 5G communication, this technology allows the robotaxi to access information from its environment as well as other vehicles and infrastructure or even be remotely piloted, if necessary.