Baidu’s autonomous driving chief wants robotaxis to ditch human drivers, but regulatory hurdles are steep

Baidu’s Wei Dong says the company is working with regulators to amend regulations to allow robotaxis on the streets without someone behind the wheel. The Internet search giant sees this as key to the commercial viability of robotaxis, which Baidu offers at a steep discount in select pilot zones around China. — SCMP

Nine years after Baidu started researching autonomous driving, the Internet search and artificial intelligence giant says its self-driving cars are ready for a broader roll-out across China and can ditch human drivers altogether.

“We aim to run fully driverless robotaxis if the government gives permission, because this is the end game,” said Wei Dong, chief security operations officer at Baidu’s Intelligent Driving Group.