Borrowing an autonomous taxi and therefore without any driver is now possible in Beijing.
The Chinese company Baidu (BUDU) and the startup Pony.ai obtained the first permits to offer a transport service by robotaxi on Thursday April 28, reports
CNN
.
An operator in the passenger seat
The first autonomous vehicles were put into circulation the same day.
Residents must book these new-fangled taxis through apps.
During the test phase, they can experiment with them for free.
Customers are not alone in the vehicle despite the absence of a driver.
Indeed, an operator systematically sits on the passenger seat to ensure proper operation in the machine.
He can also take control in an emergency.
Soon new vehicles
At the moment, the Baidu company is making available only ten cars for the test phase.
In the coming months, 30 additional vehicles should be deployed.
These robotaxis can currently only circulate within a radius of 60 km.
This is not a first for China.
In 2020, another Chinese startup had deployed driverless robotaxis on the roads of Shenzhen.
Only selected residents could enjoy it.
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