By Jiahui Huang
Chinese internet company Baidu plans to expand its robotaxi operations in the Middle East, as Chinese autonomous-driving companies start to scale up their fleets.
The Beijing-based company said Saturday that its robotaxi business, Apollo Go, will deploy 100 fully autonomous cars in urban Dubai by the end of this year. It also plans to increase the fleet size in Dubai to at least 1,000 units by 2028.
The move comes as leading autonomous-driving companies in China have been racing to expand overseas, grow their fleet size and scale up operations in the domestic market, following the easing of regulations on autonomous-driving vehicles by Beijing last year.
Chinese autonomous-driving company WeRide said earlier this month that it will launch at least 50 robotaxis in Abu Dhabi in the middle of this year in partnership with Uber. The partnership, which was unveiled in December, means Uber users in the city may be matched with WeRide's self-driving cars.
Competition in the Middle East market could intensify with search giant Baidu's expansion plans.
Baidu's Apollo Go said last August that it operated more than 400 driverless taxis in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, its biggest fleet in the country. As of January 2025, the total rides provided to the public by Apollo Go exceeded 9 million, the company said in its 2024 annual report.
Apollo Go's entry into the Middle East market marks its first fleet deployment outside China and Hong Kong.
Write to Jiahui Huang at jiahui.huang@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 31, 2025 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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