China's Autonomous Driving Goes Global at an Accelerated Pace! Baidu's "Apollo Go" Targets Japan and Switzerland

A reporter from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily exclusively learned from informed sources that Baidu's autonomous driving ride-hailing service, "Apollo Go," intends to expand into the Japanese market. In addition, Switzerland and Turkey are also included in its overseas plans.

In the Middle Eastern market, Baidu's Apollo Go has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to conduct large-scale autonomous driving tests and services in downtown Dubai, with plans to deploy over 1,000 fully autonomous vehicles. This marks Apollo Go's first large-scale autonomous driving test and service deployment outside of China.

Furthermore, Apollo Go has also obtained the first batch of autonomous driving test licenses for right-hand drive, left-hand traffic regions in Hong Kong, China, and has commenced trials on highway areas outside the airport. The Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily reporter learned that Baidu is actively discussing with the Hong Kong SAR government to expand the scope of tests this year. Currently, the Hong Kong team consists of several dozen members, with expectations to further expand the team size.

At Baidu's earnings call in February this year, founder Li Yanhong stated that 2025 will be a crucial year of expansion for Apollo Go, which will actively seek collaborations with mobile service operators, taxi companies, third-party fleet operators, and others.

In addition to Baidu, several other autonomous driving companies, including Pony.ai and WeRide, are also expanding into overseas markets. An industry insider told the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that this is because overseas autonomous driving taxis (Robotaxis) have already begun to receive large-scale commercial approvals, while domestic companies are still awaiting policy support.

Geographically, companies are mainly focusing on Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. For example, WeRide has already achieved actual deployments in France, Switzerland, and Spain, and has obtained licenses for fully autonomous driving public road tests and operations in France through its partnership with French autonomous driving ride-hailing network operator beti. In the Middle East, WeRide has launched Robotaxi public operation services in Abu Dhabi and Dubai through its strategic partnership with Uber, and plans to add 15 new international cities in the next five years, deploying autonomous driving Robotaxi services in regions such as Europe and the Middle East. In Singapore, WeRide has partnered with renowned local environmental sanitation company Chye Thiam Maintenance to deploy L4 autonomous driving environmental sanitation vehicles.

Pony.ai also has product and business deployments in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and recently reached a global strategic cooperation agreement with Uber to integrate into Uber's platform in H2 2025. The cooperation between the two parties will first commence in the Middle Eastern market this year, with plans to gradually expand to more international markets in the future. Pony.ai has also established an R&D center in Luxembourg and recently obtained the first batch of Robotaxi test licenses issued by the Luxembourg Ministry of Mobility and Public Works, becoming one of the first companies approved to conduct road tests locally.

However, the commercialization of autonomous driving technology still faces numerous challenges, with the development prospects of Robotaxi constrained by both technological bottlenecks and market uncertainties.

In December 2024, General Motors announced that it would cease providing R&D funding support for Robotaxi to its autonomous driving subsidiary, Cruise, primarily due to the excessive time and cost required to scale up the business, as well as intensifying competition. Cruise's technical team will merge with General Motors' team and shift its focus to developing assisted driving systems for personal vehicles.

Google's Robotaxi subsidiary, Waymo, has been operating at a loss. According to the first-quarter report of Google's parent company this year, revenue from the "Other Bets" segment (which includes Waymo and life sciences business Verily) declined by 9% YoY to $450 million, while losses widened from $1.02 billion in the same period last year to $1.23 billion.

"Beyond the existing landscape of passenger vehicle manufacturers, it remains questionable whether Robotaxi can establish an independent ecological niche, " an expert in the field of vehicle-road coordination told the *Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily*. "Currently, the industry's gross margins are insufficient to cover the high R&D costs, and the sector is still in the technology validation phase. It is expected that it will take another 2-3 years of cultivation before true commercialization can be achieved."