GUANGZHOU, China — Baidu has partnered with state-owned automaker BAIC Group to construct 1,000 driverless vehicles over the subsequent three years and finally commercialize a robotaxi service throughout China.

The Apollo Moon vehicles will probably be manufactured beneath BAIC’s ARCFOX electrical automobile model whereas Baidu will present the autonomous driving techniques and software program.

The businesses stated every automobile might be manufactured at 480,000 yuan ($74,729) every, versus the common of a 1 million yuan for an autonomous automotive, due to the maturation in expertise and mass manufacturing capabilities.

Apollo Moon has a projected working cycle of over 5 years. It is unclear when manufacturing will start, when they are going to be rolled out and whether or not Baidu, which can function the robotaxi fleet, will cost passengers to make use of the service.

Analysts see Baidu’s foray into autonomous vehicles over the previous few 12 months as a future growth driver for the corporate because it appears to diversify its income away from promoting. The Chinese language web large has developed a self-driving software program and {hardware} system referred to as Apollo which it appears to promote to different automakers.

However robotaxis may supply one other income stream if they’re commercialized efficiently.

Baidu has been testing robotaxis in plenty of main cities throughout China together with Shanghai. In Beijing, Baidu has began charging passengers for rides in its driverless vehicles round Shougang Park, one of many websites for the Winter Olympics in 2022.

With the BAIC partnership, Baidu will probably be hoping to take robotaxis past simply the testing section and to a mass-market rollout of a service.

It will pit the corporate in opposition to ride-hailing large Didi, which is racing towards an initial public offering in the U.S. and can be developing its own robotaxis.

Baidu can be dealing with competitors from plenty of start-ups in China including WeRide and Pony.ai, each of that are testing their very own fleet of autonomous taxis within the southern Chinese language metropolis of Guangzhou.

Baidu has been aggressively increasing partnerships with established automakers. Earlier this 12 months, it arrange a standalone electric car company in partnership with Chinese language carmaker Geely.