Baidu's self-driving taxi service has been available in Beijing since Nov 12. Citizens can place an order at dozens of self-driving taxi stations in Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, Haidian district and Shunyi district.

You can directly place an order for free trial rides without making an appointment. 

Screenshot of the taxi-hailing service on the Apollo Go App. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Among the dozens of open stations in the city, the Beijing Economic Development Zone has the densest concentration of pick-up points. 

Before taking a ride in a Baidu Apollo self-driving taxi, one must fill in their personal information to Apollo's official website or the Baidu map registration portal. After this step has been completed, Baidu Apollo will organize trial rides for users. 

Once a user is signed up, they can hail a car easily by opening Baidu maps, selecting the "Taxi-Autopilot" option and a pick-up and drop-off station, as well as the number of passengers.  Commuters can also download and use the specialized Apollo Go App to hail rides. At present, the app is available on the Xiaomi, Oppo, Huawei and Vivo app stores, as well as the iOS App Store.

When using the car-hailing service in the Economic Development Zone, passengers can view the list of recommended pick-up and drop-off sites, including dozens of stations in Tongrentang, the East Gate of the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee and Haotenai Equipment Co. 

Once a user has selected the nearest station, they can click "Call now," and a self-driving taxi will be immediately dispatched and arrive at the chosen station a few minutes later.

Screenshot of the taxi-hailing service on the Apollo Go App. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Compared with earlier self-driving taxis, which demanded that citizens enter and exit the car at dozens of designated stops, Baidu's Apollo Go App can intelligently recommend nearby pick-up spots for citizens and provide directions to the pick-up point.

The operating hours of Baidu's self-driving taxis are from Monday to Sunday, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, except for statutory holidays. 

During operating hours, the public can make reservations for free trial rides at pick-up and drop-off stations. Dozens of autonomous taxis have been deployed in the Economic Development Zone.

According to the Beijing Economic Development Zone, Baidu Apollo uses the Economic Development Zone as the "main battlefield" for its autonomous driving tests.

It has completed over 519,000 kilometers of road tests in Beijing and achieved the next stage: public trials. The self-driving taxi service was officially launched in the district last month.

According to Baidu, the robotaxi testing area in Beijing is about 700 kilometers long, covering dozens of sites in the living circles and business circles of Yizhuang, Haidian and Shunyi districts. 

Beijing is the third city where Apollo Go robotaxis have begun regular services, after Changsha and Cangzhou.

Of course, Baidu's Apollo autonomous driving taxis are equipped with safety officers, in line with the requirements of the autonomous driving test regulations.

The safety officers do not drive the vehicle during the journey but serve as an additional security guarantee for the safe operation of the vehicle. 

The number of Apollo Go fleets is currently relatively limited, although they will continue to expand in the future. As the public demand for trial rides increases, there may be cases where orders are not dispatched for a long time. Also, Apollo Go will be temporarily suspended in extreme weather.