Baidu Reveals Apollo RT6 Level 4 Autonomous Robotaxi

Self-driving taxis are already taking the world by storm. Not just the US, but arguably China is the leading market for robotaxis and the Google of China, Baidu, is doing its bit to push the narrative. The latest is the Baidu Apollo RT6 robotaxi which features level 4 autonomous capability with a removable steering wheel.

Apollo started off as a software capability which has hundreds of partnerships with major automakers like Toyota, Ford and Volkswagen. But by 2021, it had ventured into the robotaxi space with a partnership with Geely to make EVs. Both last year introduced a new brand called JIDU which also raised $300 million for intelligent robot EVs.

Alongside, there is Apollo Go which has been delivering self-driving taxis by using EVs that are in the market retrofitted with Apollo’s technology. But the RT6 is something all new built from the ground up for autonomy.

Baidu has revealed that it has managed to get the price down to $37,000 per EV as elaborated by Baidu’s mercurial co-founder and CEO Robin Li.

“This massive cost reduction will enable us to deploy tens of thousands of AVs across China. We are moving towards a future where taking a robotaxi will be half the cost of taking a taxi today,” he said.

It gets a detachable steering wheel and that allows space for more passengers. It has been designed in a modular way so there can be more seating installed and things like vending machines, desktops and gaming consoles can be added.

The level 4 autonomous driving stack provides up to 1,200 TOPs of computing power and there is complex sensor architecture that involves 38 sensors, 8 LiDARs, 6 mmWav radars, 12 ultrasonic radars and 12 cameras to provide the vehicle unprecedented spatula awareness. There are sensors that have been integrated into the panoramic glass roof as well.

There is a seven-layer redundancy that has been integrated into the EV and there are interactive lights that indicate key signals to communicate with passengers and the other vehicles on the road.

The Baidu Apollo RT6 will be deployed on the Apollo Go Taxi network for trains in the second half of 2023. The plan is to grow a fleet of 10,000 RT6s to 100,000 RT6s.

Apollo Go has already launched in 10 cities in China and will provide over a million rides. Baidu has plans of scaling this service to 65 cities by 2025 and 100 cities by 2030 thanks to the RT6.