BAIDU Inc., China’s search engine giant, on Thursday unveiled its new autonomous vehicle (AV) with a detachable steering wheel, with plans to put it to use for its robotaxi service in China next year.

Apollo RT6 robotaxis are set to be mass-produced at a cost of 250,000 yuan (US$37,031.55) per unit, compared with 480,000 yuan for the previous generation, Baidu said in a statement.

The car will become available on Baidu’s riding-hailing service in 2023. Baidu said it plans to eventually deploy “tens of thousands” of the robotaxis.

“This massive cost reduction will enable us to deploy tens of thousands of AVs across China,” Baidu’s CEO Robin Li said at the Baidu World conference. “We are moving towards a future where taking a robotaxi will be half the cost of taking a taxi today.”

The new vehicle will possess autonomous Level 4 capabilities that need no human intervention, with 8 lidars and 12 cameras alongside the car. Lidars are detection systems, similar to radars, which use pulsed laser light rather than radio waves. The company did not disclose the manufacturer for the new model.

Beijing-based Baidu is expanding beyond internet advertising with its push into artificial intelligence technology and autonomous driving.

Baidu’s ride-hailing platform Apollo Go deploys 300 driverless cars in major cities including Shanghai and Beijing, and may become profitable in some regions in three years, company vice president Wei Dong said in April. Baidu has said it plans to expand Apollo Go into 65 Chinese cities by 2025, rising to 100 by 2030.

The Apollo RT6 has a projected operating cycle of more than five years, a Baidu spokeswoman said, adding that the company’s self-developed technology and low-cost sensors helped reduce production costs.

Baidu, which launched its autonomous driving unit Apollo established in 2017, is among a number of companies in China striving to make mainstream use of autonomous vehicles a reality.

Its rivals in this area include Pony.ai, backed by Toyota Motor and WeRide, which has received investment from Nissan Motor and Guangzhou Automobile Group.

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk said in April that the firm aims to start mass production of its robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals in 2024, and predicted that a robotaxi ride will cost less than a bus ticket. (SD-Agencies)