Baidu's new robotaxi can drive without a steering wheel and is 50% cheaper

cnbc.com:

BEIJING — Chinese tech giant Baidu announced Thursday it has cut the price of its robotaxi vehicles by nearly half, lowering costs for a nascent business.

The new vehicle, the Apollo RT6, is an electric car that costs 250,000 yuan (about $37,313) to produce — without relying on a third-party manufacturer, Baidu said. That price is 48% less than the 480,000 yuan manufacturing cost announced last year for the Apollo Moon, made in partnership with state-owned BAIC Group's Arcfox electric car brand.

The Apollo RT6 is set to start operating on China's roads in the second half of next year under Baidu's self-driving robotaxi business.

The company's robotaxi business, called Apollo Go, received Beijing city's approval in November to begin charging fares for rides within a suburban district. However, a human staff member must still sit in the car.

In April, municipal authorities loosened restrictions on whether the staff member had to sit in the driver's seat, paving the way to fully eliminating the cost of a taxi driver. It remains unclear when the Chinese government would allow robotaxis to charge fares for rides without any human staff in the vehicles.

The Apollo RT6 comes with a detachable steering wheel, as the car will no longernecessarily need one to drive.

General Motors and Ford have similar futuristic design plans for their self-driving car fleets.

The automakers have asked U.S. regulators to allow them to remove the steering wheel or other features of a traditional car for their fleets, according to documents set for official publication Thursday from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Baidu said the company aims to produce 100,000 Apollo RT6 vehicles over an unspecified period of time.

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