Baidu says its Apollo Go service is the world's largest autonomous ride-hailing operation. By November 2025 it had completed more than 17 million rides and was handling over 250,000 fully driverless orders a week with no safety operator on board, across 22 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Between Baidu's previous earnings report and October 31, Apollo Go completed more than 3 million orders in under three months, nearly 50% more than in the second quarter.
On safety, Baidu founder Robin Li cited 10.14 million kilometres of operation per airbag deployment and said: "This figure not only significantly surpasses human driver performance but also exceeds that of our peer, Waymo." The metric is Baidu's own and has not been independently audited.
Cost is central to the business case. Baidu's sixth-generation driverless vehicle cost 204,600 yuan (about $28,600) per unit the previous year, and the article's editor notes that the seventh generation is reportedly under $20,000. Li projected that robotaxi operating costs in the United States could fall to about $0.25 per mile by 2030 and that demand for ride-hailing could grow five to seven times. "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 said.
The article reports that Apollo Go's Wuhan operation is nearing break-even and that, based on current trends, the service is projected to achieve profitability by 2025. For comparison, the editor notes that Waymo had completed 10 million rides by May 21. The source does not describe the vehicles' sensors, software or operations platform.
Details
- City
- Beijing
- Organization
- Baidu
- Continent
- Asia
- Country
- China
- Category