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

BEIJING — Chinese technology giant baidu On Wednesday, it announced that its robotaxi unit would begin test drives in Switzerland in December, as companies race to get their vehicles on European roads.

Baidu said the company’s Apollo Go unit will operate through a strategic partnership with Swiss public transport operator PostBus.

The companies aim to begin operating a public, fully driverless taxi service called “AmiGo” using Apollo Go’s RT6 electric vehicles starting in the first quarter of 2027, the press release said. Baidu added that once the robotaxes are operational, operators plan to remove the cars’ steering wheels.

Plans to begin testing in December are the most concrete steps Baidu has announced so far in getting its robotaxi on public roads in Europe.

The Chinese technology company announced in August that it would partner with the US ride-hailing company. Lyft Robotaxis will be deployed in the UK and Germany from 2026. A month ago Baidu, Uber Apollo Go will deploy its robotaxi on the ride-hailing platform outside the US and mainland China later in the year.

Other robotaxi companies are also racing to expand into Europe and the Middle East after establishing operations in the United States and China.

On Friday, Chinese robotaxi operator Pony.ai announced it would team up with Stellantis to begin testing in Luxembourg in the coming months before expanding to other European cities next year.

US rival Waymo, owned by Google parent company Alphabet, also announced last week that it plans to begin testing in London before launching its driverless taxi service there next year. Uber said in June that it would begin fully autonomous driving trials in the UK in spring 2026 with SoftBank-backed autonomous driving technology startup Wayve.

— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.