Baidu robotaxi

London is gearing up to welcome self-driving taxis next year , with another big-name partnership announced today set to give customers more choice. Now, ride-hailing app firms Uber and Lyft have announced a partnership with Chinese tech giant Baidu to bring their electric robot taxis to the capital from next year. Waymo, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, which operates in San Francisco, has already started testing autonomous taxis in London. Baidu’s fully electric RT6 model will be tested on London roads. The fleet has reportedly been designed and built from the outset to operate without a driver, while competitors’ fleets, like Waymo’s Jaguar I-Pace, are converted production. Waymo’s self-driving vehicles started their London tests last week. They have a safety driver on board, but the aim is thought to be for them to be fully driverless. Saber Fallah, a professor of safe AI and autonomy at the University of Surrey, told Metro that the new taxis are likely to be required to have a safety driver inside because of London’s complex road layout, making them autonomous vehicles but not fully driverless. To get the latest news from the capital, visit Metro's London news hub . The aim of the trials is for companies like Baidu to gather data from London as the cars have been developed for cities in China with several differences like driving on the right. Prof Fallah said: ‘The most important thing they are looking for with the tests is data, not technology.’ The Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, said: ‘Another vote of confidence in our plans for self-driving vehicles from global leader Lyft. We’re planning for self-driving cars to carry passengers for the first time from Spring, under our pilot scheme – harnessing this technology safely and responsibly to transform travel.’ ‘Riders across the city will be the first in the region to experience Baidu’s Apollo Go vehicles. We expect to start testing our initial fleet with dozens of vehicles next year – pending regulatory approval – through the Lyft and Freenow ecosystem, with plans to scale to hundreds from there.’ Robotaxi trials are also in the cards for cities in Germany , Switzerland and Luxembourg , with Chinese firms offering robot car technology on the driver’s seat. 4. Farmer who shot teen burglar dead will not face criminal charges Switzerland’s public transport operator PostBus is also in cahoots with Baidu, with driverless trials due to begin this month across its three eastern cantons, including St Gallen. Meanwhile, the Chinese robotaxi firm Pony.ai said in October it is working with Stellantis to kick off its own tests in Luxembourg, one of the continent’s smallest countries.