Baidu's Apollo Go matches Waymo as Chinese firms make robotaxi push

Baidu’s driverless taxi service has reached a new high point in its operations, with weekly rides now topping 250,000 orders, the company announced through its Apollo Go unit on October 31. The figure puts the Chinese tech giant on equal footing with Waymo , the self-driving car company backed by Google’s parent Alphabet. Waymo reported similar numbers for its weekly paid rides in the United States back in late April. When asked for updated figures, Waymo did not provide new numbers. The American company runs its services mainly in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, and works with Uber in Austin and Atlanta. The milestone comes as companies from China and the United States race to dominate cutting-edge technology areas like artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and self-driving cars. It remains unclear how long Apollo Go has been handling 250,000 rides each week. Earlier this year, during the three months ending...

https://www.cryptopolitan.com/baidu-run-as-many-robotaxi-rides-as-waymo/