Baidu announced Monday it became the first robotaxi operator in China to obtain permits for selling rides with no human driver or staff member inside the vehicles.
The initial scale of the permits is small: 10 robotaxis divided between two suburban areas of Wuhan and Chongqing, two major Chinese cities.
In the U.S., Alphabet’s Waymo and GM’s subsidiary Cruise can already run public robotaxis with no human staff in the vehicles.