Baidu, a Chinese technology company, made the announcement on Thursday that it had reduced the price of its robotaxi vehicles by nearly half, hence reducing expenses for a new company.
According to Baidu, the production of the new electric vehicle, which is called the Apollo RT6, has a cost of 250,000 yuan, which is approximately $37,313, and does not rely on a third-party manufacturer. This price is 48% lower than the manufacturing cost of 480,000 yuan that was reported the previous year for the Apollo Moon, which was created in conjunction with the Arcfox electric car brand, which is controlled by the state-owned BAIC Group.
Within the framework of Baidu’s autonomous taxi service, the Apollo RT6 is scheduled to begin rolling out into the roads of China during the second half of the year that will follow.
In November, the company’s robotaxi service, which goes by the name Apollo Go, was granted permission by the municipal government of Beijing to start charging charges for journeys inside a suburban district. However, a human member of the team is still required to sit in the car at all times.
In April, the officials in charge of the municipality eased limits on whether or not the staff member was required to sit in the driver’s seat. This paved the way for the cost of a cab driver to be completely eliminated. It is still unknown when the Chinese government will give robotaxis permission to offer trips for which they will charge fares despite the fact that there will be no human workers present in the cars.
The Apollo RT6 comes equipped with a steering wheel that may be removed in the event that it is no longer required to safely operate the vehicle.
Both General Motors and Ford have comparable designs in mind for the autonomous vehicles they intend to produce in the near future.
According to documents that are scheduled to be officially published on Thursday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the automakers have requested permission from U.S. regulators to remove traditional car features such as the steering wheel and other components from the fleets of vehicles they manufacture.
Baidu has stated that the business plans to construct 100,000 Apollo RT6 vehicles over a period of time that has not been specified.
The co-founder and current CEO of Baidu, Robin Li, was quoted as saying in a statement that “this massive cost reduction will enable us to deploy tens of thousands of [autonomous driving vehicles] across China.” “We are moving towards a future where taking a robotaxi will be half the cost of taking a taxi today.”
According to the company’s statement, Apollo Go is currently available in 10 locations across China, with plans to expand to 65 cities by 2025 and 100 cities by 2030.
In China, start-up companies like as Pony.ai and WeRide, in addition to Baidu, are experimenting with operating robotaxi firms.
Elinor Leung, managing director of Asia telecom and internet research at CLSA, said in a recent interview earlier this week, that in order for enterprises to develop in China, they need to test robotaxis and secure permits in each city they wish to operate in.
According to her, robotaxi businesses will need to raise more capital in order to test more vehicles in a variety of places before cities will recognize each other’s testing records.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login