Baidu Apollo Go Launches Driverless Taxi Testing in London

Baidu's Apollo Go has officially launched on-road testing of autonomous taxis in London, UK — becoming the first Chinese autonomous driving service provider to partner simultaneously with both Uber and Lyft's European mobility platform, Freenow. This marks a pivotal step in Apollo Go's global expansion into right-hand-drive markets, following its earlier deployment in Hong Kong.

According to publicly available information, the collaboration with Freenow — the European mobility platform under Lyft — has commenced in the London Borough of Brent, deploying Apollo Go's sixth-generation RT6 vehicles. The current test fleet still includes safety drivers and operates across mixed urban and suburban road conditions. Both parties stated that public-facing commercial ride-hailing services are expected to launch in 2027, subject to approval timelines from UK regulatory authorities.

This deployment follows two separate agreements signed by Baidu with Uber and Lyft in 2025: the partnership with Lyft aims to scale thousands of Apollo Go vehicles across multiple core European markets; while the agreement with Uber targets global markets outside mainland China and the U.S., with a similar goal of integrating thousands of vehicles onto its platform.

Earlier, on July 27, Apollo Go launched the world's first fully driverless public-road trial in a right-hand-drive market — on Hong Kong Airport Island — with no safety driver onboard. The trial received Hong Kong's first-ever fully driverless pilot license from the Transport Department on July 23, officially recognized as the first L4-level fully unmanned test approved in any right-hand-drive region. Early operational data shows the vehicles proactively yield to pedestrians, accurately recognize traffic signals, and maintain stable performance even during heavy rainfall and other complex weather conditions.

Since receiving Hong Kong's first batch of autonomous driving pilot licenses in November 2024, Apollo Go has expanded operations from Airport Island to North Lantau, Joylong East, and Southern Hong Kong Island, accumulating over 240,000 kilometers of autonomous driving mileage. Technical experience gained in Hong Kong is now directly informing deployments in other right-hand-drive markets, including London.

As of April 2026, Apollo Go has completed over 22 million autonomous ride-hailing orders globally; in Q1 2026 alone, it fulfilled 3.2 million fully driverless orders — a year-on-year increase of over 120%; and by May 2026, its fleet had surpassed 330 million kilometers of total autonomous driving mileage, including more than 220 million kilometers driven fully driverlessly.

Apollo Go has achieved deeper commercialization in left-hand-drive markets: it offers fully driverless paid services in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE; operates under the AmiGo brand with L4-level operating permission in eastern Switzerland; and remains China's largest autonomous ride-hailing service provider. Central Asia is also entering the rollout phase — Baidu signed a memorandum of understanding with Freedom Holding at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference to explore service deployment in Kazakhstan.

Notably, although Apollo Go has secured technical validation and regulatory approvals across multiple right- and left-hand-drive regions, its operations in London, Switzerland, and elsewhere remain in the "safety-driver-supervised" pilot phase — excluding Hong Kong Airport Island, a highly controlled environment — and have not yet opened to fare-paying passengers. Bridging the gap between "first fully driverless test" and "any citizen hailing a ride anytime" still requires overcoming multiple hurdles — including regulation, infrastructure readiness, and public acceptance.