On August 12, Chinese tech giant Baidu – often called “China’s Google” – announced a partnership with U.S. ride-hailing platform Lyft to launch Level 4 autonomous ride-hailing services in Germany and the UK starting in 2026. These vehicles will operate in designated areas without drivers or safety operators, representing high-level automation with minimal human intervention. The initiative extends Baidu’s Apollo Go (Luobo Kuaipao) network, already the world’s largest autonomous ride-hailing service by volume.
The European move follows Baidu’s July partnership with Uber to expand into Asian and Middle Eastern markets, underscoring a broader global expansion strategy. Apollo Go has completed more than 5 million passenger trips, covering over 100 million kilometers, and by late 2023 deployed over 1,000 vehicles across Beijing, Shenzhen, Chongqing, and Wuhan. Baidu aims to reach 100 Chinese cities by 2030. Globally, China and the United States dominate the sector: of the 16 cities with driverless taxi fleets in 2024, 12 were in China and four in the U.S. Waymo remains the only Western operator with large-scale commercial services, running about 1,500 vehicles across Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Austin.
Europe, by contrast, lags far behind. Current projects are limited to small-scale autonomous shuttles, with investment dwarfed by China and the U.S., which together account for 98 percent of the €100 billion invested globally since 2012. European automakers have largely focused on electric vehicles and incremental automation rather than full L4/L5 capabilities. Regulatory caution, fragmented commercial ecosystems, and lingering public concerns over safety and job losses continue to slow adoption. As French economist Jincheng Ni notes, Europe risks falling further behind unless it accelerates investment and builds the infrastructure to support large-scale autonomous mobility.
Source: Radio France International, August 21, 2025
https://rfi.my/BwTN