Citizens in Beijing E-Town can now hail fully autonomous passenger vehicles.

Fully autonomous driving transportation services are now available in Beijing E-Town. [Photo/beijingetown.com.cn]

The head office of the Beijing High-level Automated Driving Demonstration Area has revealed that Baidu's "Carrot Run" and Pony.ai have obtained the first permits for "remote-controlled unmanned driving" applications in the demonstration zone, allowing them to start fully autonomous driving transportation services in Beijing.

According to the permits, Baidu's "Carrot Run" and Pony.ai will deploy 10 fully autonomous driving vehicles each, operating within a designated area of 60 square kilometers in Beijing E-Town. 

Citizens can use apps such as "Carrot Run," Baidu Maps, and PonyPilot+ to hail a fully autonomous driving vehicle without a safety driver on board to travel to various destinations like subway stations, key commercial areas, and residential communities.

Baidu's "Carrot Run" in autonomous driving test [Photo/beijingetown.com.cn]

Baidu's "Carrot Run" in autonomous driving test [Photo/beijingetown.com.cn]

From testing to demonstration applications, the unmanned Robotaxi business model is gradually forming a closed loop. 

With the entry into the "unmanned in-vehicle, remote control from outside the vehicle" testing stage, both companies deployed 10 vehicles each for three months of fully unmanned testing on public roads in Beijing E-Town, demonstrating safe and stable operation in complex scenarios such as intersections, narrow roads, and extreme weather conditions such as rain, snow, and sandstorms.

Since the beginning of this year, the demonstration zone has fully launched the construction of its 3.0 stage, which will gradually promote replication and promotion, technological iteration, policy innovation, and industrial clustering. 

Another 100 square kilometers will be built in Beijing E-Town this year to add to the existing network of 60 square kilometers of intelligent connected road, and the demonstration zone will be gradually expanded to cover a total of 500 square kilometers in the city, according to the head office of the Beijing High-level Automated Driving Demonstration Area. 

This will realize more autonomous driving application scenarios, including commercial passenger transportation with fully unmanned vehicles, connect Beijing E-Town to the Beijing Daxing International Airport and establish commercial logistics routes for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.