Baidu is poised to become the first company to deploy driverless taxis in China after winning regulatory approval.
Companies around the world are racing to develop and deploy driverless vehicles. Baidu just achieved a major step, gaining approval to operate driverless taxis in Wuhan and Chongqing, according to The Boston Globe.
The company plans to work with additional cities, such as Beijing and Guangzhou, to gain approval to operate there as well.
“It’s as if we’ve landed on the moon and built a base there,” said Wei Dong, vice-president of Baidu Intelligence Driving Group. “It’s just a matter of time for us to go to Mars or even beyond our solar system.”
As the Globe points out, Baidu has been aggressively expanding from its search engine roots to artificial intelligence and self-driving vehicles. If the company is as successful with its driverless taxis as it has been in the search engine industry, it could quickly dominate the field in China.