On Thursday, Uber Technologies declared that fully autonomous Apollo Go cars by Baidu are now officially accessible to clients on the Uber platform in Dubai, with New Horizon Luxury Transport running the fleet.
The launch is a significant milestone in the Uber plan to roll out autonomous mobility globally and the beginning of a multi-year strategic alliance to ultimately roll out thousands of Apollo Go vehicles in the Uber global network.
UberX and Uber Comfort customers in Dubai are now able to be paired with fully autonomous Apollo Go cars. Individuals who want to have a higher likelihood of being paired with an autonomous vehicle can choose the special Autonomous option in the Uber app.
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The service will be launched in the first place in the chosen regions of Umm Suqeim and Jumeirah, and the area of operation is likely to be increased in the future.
According to Sarfaraz Maridia, the global head of autonomous mobility delivery at Uber, the collaboration with Baidu is a significant move in the globalization of autonomous transportation at the company.
He claimed that the Dubai launch is the first practical application of the multi-partner vision of Uber, emphasizing the importance of autonomous technology in speeding up the shift to a future that is based on electric vehicles, shared mobility and autonomous driving.
Nan Yang, the vice president of Baidu and the general manager of the international business unit of the Smart Driving Group, said the launch was a significant milestone in the company expanding its collaboration with Uber.
He claimed that Dubai is the first city where Baidu has developed a dual model of its own autonomous ride-hailing business and internationally operated partnership-based business.
Apollo Go RT6 Robotaxis
The service operates Baidu sixth-generation Apollo Go RT6 vehicles, which are fully electric robotaxis that are specifically designed to drive without a driver.
Each car will have a capacity of three passengers and will have over 30 sensors that will give a complete awareness of the surrounding environment and process data in real time.
Apollo Go has increased its autonomous driving activities in the real world and in various markets. The company claimed that it operates in 28 cities across the globe, and its self-driving cars have covered over 350 million kilometres.
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Out of that number, over 240 million kilometres have been driven fully autonomously without a driver, and the company has what it called a good safety record.
Uber indicated that all autonomous vehicles that are on its platform, including the Apollo Go vehicles of Baidu, should comply with its stringent safety standards before they can be deployed on the platform.
The launch is a subset of the larger initiative by Uber to increase electric, shared and autonomous transportation. The company claimed that it now has over 30 autonomous vehicle partners and makes millions of autonomous journeys annually.
Uber is aiming to create what it calls the first hybrid mobility network in the industry, which involves the use of autonomous vehicles and human-driven vehicles on the same platform to make transportation more affordable, sustainable and ubiquitous.
