By WU Yangyu
Yangquan, Hometown of Robin Li, founder and CEO of Baidu, is a coal city in central China’s Shanxi Province. It is also the third city, after Beijing and Chongqing, to see Baidu’s self-driving robot taxis on the streets for business.
The robotaxis operate within a certain range of the city’s high-tech zone. Passengers can order a robotaxi on the Luobo Kuaipao app from 9am to 5pm every day.
A Jiemian News reporter ordered a FAW Hongqi sedan on Saturday. The taxis are self-driving, but for the near foreseeable future, a human driver still occupies the driver’s seat. He did nothing at all during the seven-kilometer trip through heavy traffic. During the trip, a car in front of tried to pull over, the robotaxi stopped the engine first before it steered away from it like human drivers would do. Other than that, the trip was no different from a normal taxi ride.
Over 100 kilometers in of Yangquan’s streets are connected with the city’s cooperative vehicle-infrastructure system (CVIS). The CVIS monitors robotaxis as well as detecting a range of traffic violations.
