Baidu's self-driving ride hailing platform Apollo Go is close to break-even and aims to be profitable by 2025.

(Image credit: Baidu)

Chinese tech giant Baidu's smart driving arm Apollo has launched a new generation of robotaxi, allowing costs to drop significantly and paving the way for the business to become profitable.

Apollo launched its sixth-generation robotaxi at Apollo Day 2024 in Wuhan, Hubei province today, costing 200,000 yuan ($27,670), a 60 percent drop compared to its predecessor.

These vehicles will join the robotaxi fleet on Apollo Go, Baidu's self-driving ride hailing platform, which by the end of 2024 plans to deploy 1,000 sixth-generation robotaxi in Wuhan.

Meanwhile, as a fully autonomous robotaxi operation network is established, operating costs will be reduced by 30 percent, Baidu said.

Through the optimization of self-driving technology efficiency, service costs will be reduced by 80 percent, the company said.

Baidu ventured into self-driving technology in 2013 and was one of the first Chinese companies to enter the field.

Its fifth-generation robotaxi was released in June 2021, when Apollo and BAIC's electric vehicle brand Arcfox jointly unveiled a robotaxi for ride-hailing called Apollo Moon.

The Apollo Moon, including the vehicle and driverless kit, cost RMB 480,000, a third of the average cost of an L4 self-driving car at the time.

At the beginning of 2023, Apollo's operations were still relatively small, with each vehicle losing quite a bit of money for each day of operation, said Chen Zhuo, general manager of Baidu's autonomous driving business unit.

By the beginning of this year, Apollo Go's revenue had grown ninefold and losses had been cut by more than half, according to Chen.

With 1,000 sixth-generation robotaxi to be put into service, Apollo Go's revenue will grow even faster and is very close to the break-even tipping point, he said.

"Our goal is that Apollo Go will break even in Wuhan by the end of 2024 and be profitable overall by 2025," Chen said.

Apollo Go will be the world's first commercially profitable self-driving mobility service platform, he added.

Apollo's sixth-generation robotaxi comes with Apollo ADFM (Autonomous Driving Foundation Model), the world's first large model to support L4 autonomous driving, Baidu said.

Baidu's Apollo ADFM reconfigures autonomous driving based on the large model technology, making safety more than 10 times higher than that of a human driver, the company said.

The company's vision-only city pilot assisted driving product, ANP 3, will be upgraded to ASD (Apollo Self-Driving) using Apollo ADFM.

The upgraded driver assistance software will be available on the full range of Baidu-backed Jiyue's models.

Jiyue, an electric vehicle maker created by Baidu in partnership with Geely Holding Group, launched its first model, the Jiyue 01 SUV (sport utility vehicle), on October 27 of last year. Jiyue's second vehicle, the Jiyue 07 sedan, was unveiled at the 2024 Beijing auto show late last month.

As of April, Apollo's autonomous driving mileage had exceeded 100 million kilometers, and Apollo Go had completed more than 6 million trips in China, according to Baidu.

($1 = RMB 7.2273)

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