An Apollo Robotaxi performs at Shougang Park as Baidu launches China’s initially driverless taxi service in the city on May 2, 2021 in Beijing, China.
He Luqi|Qianlong. com|Visual China Group|Getty Images
GUANGZHOU, China– Baidu prepares to introduce its driverless taxi service in 100 cities by 2030, as the Chinese search giant wants to diversify its service beyond marketing.
Currently, Baidu runs its Apollo Go robotaxi service in 5 Chinese cities. Users can hail a self-governing cars and truck by means of an app.
The business wishes to broaden Apollo Go to 65 cities by 2025 and after that 100 cities by 2030, Baidu CEO Robin Li stated in an internal letter that was revealed.
The speed of Baidu’s growth strategy highlights the business’s financial investment in self-governing driving, a location experts view as being a multi-billion dollar service for the tech giant in the future.
Baidu’s incomes report
Baidu’s driverless cars and truck statement follows the business reported profits of 31.92 billion yuan ($ 4.95 billion) for the 3rd quarter, which led market expectations.
However, Li alerted that advertisement costs has actually been affected by a downturn in China’s financial development, especially in locations consisting of education and property. Baidu still makes most of its profits from marketing.
“We expect this headwind to continue in the near term,” the CEO stated on a revenues call Wednesday.
Baidu’s Hong Kong noted shares fell more than 8% on Thursday after the numbers.
To diversify its service, Baidu has actually bought locations from semiconductors to electrical lorries and self-governing driving.
Baidu is not constructing vehicles however it lags the driverless innovation in the lorries. The business has actually partnered with different Chinese car manufacturers to broaden its robotaxi fleet.
