Baidu Apollo Go Robotaxi: 17M+ Rides, 250K Weekly Driverless Trips Across 22 Cities (2025)

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Baidu Apollo Go Robotaxi: 17M+ Rides, 250K Weekly Driverless Trips Across 22 Cities (2025)

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Baidu Inc's Apollo Go has become the world's largest autonomous ride-hailing service by November 2025, completing more than 17 million total rides and 250,000+ fully driverless orders weekly without safety operators onboard, deployed across 22 cities globally. Robin Li, Baidu's founder, said: "Once ride-hailing becomes both economical and convenient, latent demand will be fully unleashed. Driverless vehicles will then transform into new mobile living spaces." He also said: "This figure not only significantly surpasses human driver performance but also exceeds that of our peer, Waymo," referencing Apollo Go's safety metric of 10.14 million kilometers of operation before a single airbag deployment. The shift to commercial robotaxi deployment responds to dramatic cost declines: Baidu's sixth-generation driverless vehicles achieved cost reduction to 204,600 yuan ($28,600) per unit last year, with the seventh generation reportedly under $20,000. Li projected that by 2030, robotaxi operational costs in the United States could drop to approximately $0.25 per mile, driving a 5 to 7-fold surge in ride-hailing demand. The deployment timeline shows rapid acceleration: since Baidu's last earnings report until October 31, Apollo Go completed over 3 million orders in less than three months, nearly 50% quarter-over-quarter growth versus Q2 2025. Operations have expanded across Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi, with Wuhan nearing break-even and projected profitability by 2025. Architecture spans the sixth-generation autonomous driving stack with multi-sensor fusion, HD mapping, and Apollo's deep learning planning algorithms. The fleet runs on a centralized operations platform for remote monitoring and dispatch, with the seventh generation expected to drop costs further below $20,000 per unit. Operational scale runs 250,000+ fully driverless orders weekly without safety operators, with Q4 2025 delivering 3.4 million fully driverless rides. The 10.14M km/airbag safety metric positions Apollo Go competitively against Waymo, which had completed 10 million total rides by May 2025. Looking ahead, Apollo Go plans Wuhan profitability by 2026 and continued international expansion beyond the Middle East and Hong Kong toward nationwide driverless coverage across China's major urban centers, with the seventh-generation vehicle under $20,000 driving additional cost reductions.