Foreign media: Uber and Lyft announced a partnership with Baidu, planning to pilot China's "robot taxi" in the UK in 2026, and hope to gain regulatory approval to test autonomous vehicles in London.
Baidu's driverless taxi service "Apollo Go" has been operating in China, Hong Kong, and Dubai, completing millions of trips without a human driver.
The UK transport minister said this reflects the government's confidence in promoting autonomous vehicle trials, with plans to allow driverless cars to carry passengers on the road as early as spring 2026. Uber hopes to accelerate its layout in the autonomous driving field in the UK; Lyft said that if approved, it will initially deploy dozens of Baidu driverless cars, and expand to hundreds in the future.
However, issues of safety, privacy, and traffic congestion have raised widespread concerns. Surveys show that nearly 60% of British respondents would not ride in a driverless taxi under any circumstances, and 85% would trust a manually driven vehicle under the same conditions.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1852222845170828/
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