Baidu’s Apollo Go Matches Waymo in Robotaxi Race as China Accelerates Autonomous Driving Push

Baidu's Apollo Go has reached parity with Alphabet-backed Waymo, both now handling approximately 250,000 weekly paid robotaxi rides. This milestone underscores the intensifying US-China competition in frontier technologies like autonomous vehicles, where regulatory approvals and urban deployments serve as critical battlegrounds.

While Waymo maintains operations across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix through Uber partnerships, Apollo Go dominates Wuhan's streets and select districts of Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. The Chinese tech giant is aggressively expanding to Hong Kong, Middle Eastern markets, and Switzerland—each new territory requiring rigorous public testing phases before commercial rollout.

Apollo Go's cumulative 17 million completed trips and 240 million kilometers traveled demonstrate scaled operational capability. Yet quarterly averages suggest recent acceleration, with June's 169,000 weekly rides now eclipsed by the new benchmark. Neither company disclosed whether these volumes represent profitable operations or subsidized technological demonstrations.