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Driverless robotaxis edge closer to commercial operation in Beijing

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Autonomous driving robotaxis are advancing toward commercial operation in designated roads in Beijing, as part of China's innovation drive towards smart city reforms.

Apollo Go is an autonomous ride-sharing service launched in 2017, which features a fleet of robottaxis in the suburban district of Yizhuang or E-town in the Chinese capital.

The robottaxi can drive up ramps, make u-turns, change lanes to overtake other cars, and negotiate around the streets. There's a button in the robotaxi to call for help in case of an emergency.

Beijing has allowed several robotaxis, including Apollo Go, to offer such driverless vehicle services at the Beijing Daxing International Airport

"Baidu Apollo has accumulated over 100 million kilometers of high-level autonomous driving safety testing mileage and holds over 5,000 autonomous driving patent families, ranking first globally in the number of high-level autonomous driving patent families," said Liu Chuchu, PR Manager of Baidu Apollo.

In 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged major cities to use big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence technologies to modernize urban governance.

Central to the reforms is Beijing's economic or E-zone, which launched an autonomous driving demonstration area in September 2020, the first-ever integrated vehicle-road-cloud system worldwide.

As of now, the economic zone has approved the first batch of 30 autonomous driving licenses, allowing road tests on high-speed and fast sections of six test roads, covering 143 kilometers in the area.

"There are nearly 200 companies in the demonstration area, including companies working in auto, radars, sensors, operating systems, and algorithm industries. The joint efforts have led to the results," said Kong Lei, director of Beijing E-town Management Committee.

From sanitation to security patrol vehicles, buses to delivery cars, self-driving vehicles are becoming part of residents' everyday lives.

All of this is inseparable from China's determination to deepen reforms while achieving greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology.

Over the past few years, China has made significant investments in technology, seen in the rising numbers of high-tech talents, contracts, and patents in the field.

In 2023, there were 950,000 technology contracts signed, with a transaction volume reaching more than 6 trillion yuan (about 825 billion U.S. dollars), marking a more than 28 percent increase year on year.

The number of authorized invention patents reached more than 920,000, a rise of over 15 percent year on year.

"China has an extreme drive in innovation. China's growth in the future will be driven by technology and innovation. That's the only solution and that's how China will really escape the middle-income trap, and become a developed nation with a high level of GDP per capita," said Soumitra Dutta, dean of Said Business School of Oxford University.

Looking ahead, the Chinese government has pledged to allocate 370 billion yuan (about 51 billion U.S. dollars) for science and technology in 2024, an increase of 10 percent, as part of its efforts to advance innovation.

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