Chinese technology giant Baidu has unveiled the next vehicle to join its self-driving taxi service, Apollo Go.
It says its new model, the Apollo RT6, has the road skills of a driver with 20 years' experience.
The autonomous cars currently still require a safety driver's presence company says, the RT6's detachable steering wheel could be replaced by extra seats, vending machines, desks or games consoles.
Each Apollo RT6 would cost 250,000 yuan (£31,000) - significantly less than previous models, Baidu said.
"This massive cost reduction will enable us to deploy tens of thousands of [automated vehicles] across China," co-founder and chief executive Robin Li told the company's annual technology conference.
"We are moving towards a future"
Baidu wants the RT6 to join its existing fleet in the second half of 2023, for a small-scale trial, and plans eventually to have 100,000 of them on the roads.
The vehicle is packed with 38 sensors, including:
eight light-detection and ranging (Lidar) sensors
one 6 mm (0.2in) wave radar
12 ultrasonic sensors
12 cameras.
Baidu says its robotic taxis, running on a trial basis in 10 cities in China, including Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing, have given more than one million rides since its service launched, in 2020.
There had been discussion on the country's social-network Weibo about the impact on jobs if they became official, BBC China analyst Kerry Allen said.
"While pilot schemes have been rolled out, there have been perceptions online that they are still 'hard to find' or that appointments are difficult to make, in order to try one out," she added.
Other companies in the robotic taxi space in China include:
Pony.ai, founded by former Google and Baidu engineers and backed by Toyota
Cost per unit will drop to 250,000 yuan ($37,031.55) for the new model, compared with 480,000 yuan for the previous generation, Baidu said in a statement.
"This massive cost reduction will enable us to deploy tens of thousands of AVs across China," Baidu's chief executive Robin Li said at the Baidu World conference. "We are moving towards a future where taking a robotaxi will be half the cost of taking a taxi today."
The new vehicle will possess autonomous Level 4 capabilities that need no human intervention, with 12 cameras alongside the car. Lidars are detection systems, similar to radars, which use pulsed laser light rather than radio waves.
BEIJING, July 21 (Reuters) - China's search engine giant Baidu Inc on Thursday unveiled its new autonomous vehicle (AV) with a detachable steering wheel, with plans to put it to use for its robotaxi service in China next year.
Cost per unit will drop to 250,000 yuan ($37,031.55) for the new model, compared with 480,000 yuan for the previous generation, Baidu said in a statement.
“This massive cost reduction will enable us to deploy tens of thousands of AVs across China," Baidu's chief executive Robin Li said at the Baidu World conference. "We are moving towards a future where taking a robotaxi will be half the cost of taking a taxi today.”
The company did not disclose the manufacturer for the new model.
Women wearing a face mask walks out of Baidu's headquarters in Beijing
Baidu's autonomous vehicle Apollo RT6 in Beijing
Baidu's new autonomous vehicle (AV) Apollo RT6, with a detachable steering wheel, is seen on the sidelines of Baidu World Conference in Beijing. REUTERS/Yingzhi Yang
Alphabet Inc's also unveiled a robotaxi without a steering wheel last year, saying it planned to roll out its "fully autonomous vehicles" in the U.S. in the coming years
However, automakers and tech companies around the world are still waiting for nods from regulators to deploy such vehicles in the real world.
The vehicle will hit the roads without a steering wheel once Chinese authorities approve it, said Baidu Senior Vice President at the conference, adding that the driving capability of Baidu's new AV can match a skilled human driver with over 20 years of experiences
Baidu, which launched its autonomous driving unit Apollo established in 2017, is among a number of companies in China striving to make mainstream use of autonomous vehicles a reality.
Apollo Go, Baidu's robotaxi service, has operated over 1 million across 10 Chinese cities since its launch in 2020 and Baidu said in April that it received permits to deploy robotaxis without humans in the driving seat on open roads in Beijing.
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