China’s Baidu to test robotaxis in Switzerland in race to Europe

Beijing – Chinese technology giant Baidu announced on Wednesday that its robotaxi unit will begin test drives in Switzerland in December, as companies race to get their vehicles on European roads.

The company’s Apollo Go unit will work with Swiss public transport operator Postbus through a strategic partnership, Baidu said.

By the first quarter of 2027, the companies aim to launch a public-facing fully driverless taxi service called “AmiGo” that uses Apollo Go’s RT6 electric vehicles, the press release said. Baidu added that once robotaxis is up and running, operators plan to remove the car’s steering wheels.

The plan to start trials in December is the most concrete step Baidu has announced so far to get robotaxis on public roads in Europe.

The Chinese tech company said in August it would partner with a US ride-hailing company Elevator to do Deploy Robotaxis in the UK and Germany Starting in 2026. A month ago, it announced a partnership with Baidu Uber to do Deploy Apollo Go Robotics to ride-hailing platforms outside the US and mainland China later in the year.

Other robotaxis companies are also racing to expand into Europe and Middle EastAfter building operations in the US and China.

On Friday, Chinese robotaxi operator Pony.ai announced it would partner with Stellantis Begin trials in Luxembourg in the coming months, before expanding to other European cities next year.

US rival Waymo, owned by Google parent AlphabetThe plan was also announced last week Begin trials in London Ahead of launching self-driving taxi services next year. Uber said in June that it would begin trials of SoftBank-backed fully autonomous rides in the UK in spring 2026. The Self-Driving Tech Startup Wave.

— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.