BEIJING & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU and HKEX: 9888) and Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: UBER) today announced a multi-year strategic partnership to deploy thousands of Baidu’s Apollo Go autonomous vehicles (AVs) on the Uber platform across multiple global markets outside of the U.S. and mainland China. This collaboration will focus on increasing the supply of affordable and reliable ridesharing options by bringing Baidu’s advanced autonomous vehicles onto Uber’s extensive network.
The first deployments are expected in Asia and the Middle East later this year. After launch, if a rider requests a qualifying Uber trip, they may be presented with the option to have their trip fulfilled by a fully driverless Apollo Go autonomous vehicle.
As the world’s leading autonomous ride-hailing service, Apollo Go deploys an operational fleet of over 1,000 fully driverless vehicles globally with its global footprint spanning 15 cities, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Backed by its advanced autonomous driving technology and robust safety record, Apollo Go is gaining strong momentum and accelerating its global expansion. As of May, the cumulative rides provided to the public by Apollo Go surpassed 11 million. (....)