Uber has once again made history! The world is celebrating the success of the world’s biggest ridesharing platform as it has triumphantly partnered with China’s Baidu for the effort to unveil robotaxis not only in mainland China, but across the United States and maybe even worldwide. The partnership is multi-year.
The ridesharing app stated in a statement this week that Baidu’s robotaxis will be available on the official Uber apps in Asia and the Middle East not today but later this year.
At the same time, thousands of cars will be deployed via the partnership. The Uber team stated that it is global since there will also be rollouts across Europe and Oceania.
In case you don’t know, Uber is a ridesharing company that connects drivers with riders via a mobile app. In other words, it is making it easier for you to reach to your destinations without the hassles of hailing a cab.
To be able to use Uber, you must request, you should request a ride via the official app, pinning your destination and pickup point. The app will then match you with a nearby driver who has accepted the journey. A map will provide for you where you can track where the driver is. After the ride, payments are also handled via the app. Easy-peasy.
On the other hand, Baidu is actually a multinational technology company in China, but it also runs one of the biggest fleets of robotaxis there. Thus, it is also an autonomous driving technology company.
As a technology firm, it specializes in AI and Internet services. It also holds a dominating position in the Chinese search engine market, providing a wide array of Internet services alongside its vehicle services.
Baidu has also been moving quite fantastic in the market today, as what you can see from this Yahoo! Finance report.
Continuing on, with this partnership, it is the latest autonomous driving technology company of Chinese descent to team up with Uber so it could unveil its services abroad.
For instance, Apollo Go, this firm’s robotaxi company, has provided over 11 million public rides in over a dozen cities globally, exceeding the 10 million rides that Waymo had made as of late May.
The Baidu company has also been eyeing expansion in Switzerland, Malaysia, and Singapore. Other companies that have made deals with Uber of this type are WeRide, Pony.ai – as Ridesharing Forum reported – and Momenta to cater to European and Middle Eastern markets in the coming years.
For instance, Uber’s partnerships with Waymo, as well as other technology developers and carmakers, have enabled this company to position itself as an investor and commercialization platform for driverless vehicles, rather than developing the technology in-house. Not every region in the globe has autonomous rides available.
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