Image Source: Visual China

BEIJING, April 28 (TMTPOST) — Baidu announced on Thursday that it received a permit from Beijing to operate unmanned autonomous driving services for its mobility service platform Luobo Kuaipao.

The new development means that unmanned autonomous driving is officially allowed in megacities in mainland China.

The newly released guidelines from Beijing state that entities that have received a permit can provide pilot unmanned autonomous driving services on the open road within 60 square kilometers of the Beijing High-Level Autonomous Driving Pilot Zone.

Smart cars were previously only tested on roads cleared off passerby, which means this is the first time for Beijing to allow autonomous driving cars to run on open roads. To ensure safety, the guidelines mandate higher standards on safety management, data and cybersecurity and risk avoidance, etc.

Baidu will first deploy ten unmanned autonomous driving vehicles and later add 30 more to the operation in compliance with the guidelines. Baidu currently owns the biggest autonomous driving fleet in China.

The Internet company would face many technical challenges presented by the complex road situations in Beijing. It pledges to ensure passengers’ safety and ride experience through smart vehicle technology, monitoring and parallel driving.

Launched in August 2021 and with Baidu’s nine years of experience in autonomous driving, Luobo Kuaipao now provides autonomous driving mobility services in megacities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in China. It is the biggest autonomous driving mobility service provider in the world.

Luobo Kuaipao has acquired 330 autonomous driving test licenses in China. As of the first half of 2021, Luobo Kuaipao had served over 400,000 passengers and accumulated 14 million kilometers of test runs. In Q4 2021, Luobo Kuaipao had accumulated 213,000 orders from passengers. The figure continues to grow in 2022 for Luobo Kuaipao.

Having over 2,900 patents on autonomous driving, Luobo Kuaipao has T4 licenses, which require the highest level of autonomous technology and impose the highest standards. T4 licenses also require the service provider to pass test scenes that are most complicated and difficult.

本文内容来源：钛媒体英文站