Baidu says it has a licence to charge passengers for its robotaxi service in Chinese city

Baidu Apollo’s robotaxi fleet in Cangzhou was rolled out last August and has so far accumulated 524,696 kilometres of test mileage. The granting of the licence comes ahead of Baidu’s secondary listing in Hong Kong, slated for later this month, which could raise US$3.6bil for the company. — SCMP

China’s leading search engine company Baidu said its autonomous driving unit Apollo has received licences that could allow it to charge a fee for its free-of-charge robotaxi services in Cangzhou, a third-tier city in eastern Hebei province.

Baidu said on Monday that 35 of its robotaxis have been granted licences by the local Cangzhou government to begin commercial operations, while another 10 were given the green light to conduct road tests without a driver behind the wheel, a move that could reduce operating costs for the robotaxi fleet.