BEIJING/SHANGHAI – Baidu and Pony.ai stated on Thursday they’d acquired permits to deploy robotaxis with out people within the driver seat on open Chinese language roads for the primary time, in one other occasion of Beijing’s assist for the autonomous-driving sector.

The permits are the newest set of approvals the municipal authorities has handed out over the previous yr to the 2 firms, which have been allowed to check drive their autonomous autos in some areas of town.

The brand new permits permit each firms to supply rides to most of the people from vehicles with out anybody sitting behind the steering wheel on open roads inside a 23 sq. mile space within the Beijing Financial and Technological Growth Zone.

Baidu stated 10 of its autonomous autos would provide such rides.

Pony.ai would nonetheless have security supervisors within the entrance passenger seats for now, it stated. It could deploy 4 driverless autos underneath the brand new allow and anticipated so as to add extra sooner or later, it added.

Baidu’s Hong-Kong listed shares rose as a lot as 5 p.c after the announcement.

In November the 2 firms have been allowed to launch fee-charging robotaxi companies in a smaller space in the identical zone, however authorities required them to retain a security driver behind the wheel.

Pony.ai, backed by Toyota, additionally obtained a taxi license in Guangzhou on Sunday, permitting 100 of its autonomous autos to start out charging fares for rides within the southern metropolis’s Nansha district. These autos could have security drivers.