Baidu Apollo head says technical issues and high costs likely to delay full roll-out of robotaxis until 2025

Full autonomous driving – without a safety driver – remains a challenge due to the complexities of navigating busy, real-world environments. — SCMP

The head of Baidu’s autonomous driving open platform said that full commercial operations are still several years away with technical problems, high costs and lack of clear regulations likely to delay large-scale deployment of its robotaxis until around 2025.

“Technology problems remain the biggest challenge,” said Li Zhenyu, the head of Baidu Apollo, on Tuesday on the sidelines of the AI-themed Baidu World 2020, the company’s annual technology conference. “We don’t see robotaxis being fully commercialised until 2025.”