Baidu and Pony.ai become first robotaxi services to operate without safety drivers in Beijing

Image: Baidu

In Beijing, the first city in China to allow self-drive vehicles without safety drivers, Baidu and Pony.ai have been given the go-ahead. Both companies still need a supervisor in the vehicle, even though they no longer need a staff member in the driver's seat.

The entire city of Beijing is limited to a 60 square kilometer area in Yizhuang, the home of 300,000 residents. CNBC says that Pony.ai can only operate four vehicles in the area. Both companies have plans to expand the number of vehicles on the road, but it's not clear how soon that will happen.

The city of Beijing initially required both services to have a safety driver behind the wheel before they were allowed to charge for their services. Riders can hail a ride through either the Apollo Go app from 10AM to 4PM or the PonyPilot Plus app from 9AM to 5PM.

Pony.ai became the first company to win a taxi license in China. A safety driver will be on board for a short time after it received permission to operate 100 vehicles in Guangzhou. Pony.ai was approved to test its vehicles without safety drivers in three California cities, but this permit was suspended after one of its cars collided with a center divider.

The company behind the massive Chinese search engine was granted permission to test its vehicles without safety drivers. It is one of a number of companies that can operate fully self-driving vehicles on the streets of California.