China’s Baidu to test robotaxi in Switzerland as it aims to expand into Europe

BEIJING — Chinese tech giant Baidu The company’s robotaxi division will begin trials in Switzerland in December, the company announced Wednesday, as companies compete to put their vehicles on European roads.

Baidu said its ApolloGo division will work with Swiss public transport operator Postbus through a strategic partnership.

According to a press release, the companies aim to start operating a fully driverless taxi service for the public called AmiGo using Apollo Go’s RT6 electric vehicles by the first quarter of 2027. Baidu added that once the robotaxi is operational, the operator will take off the steering wheel of the vehicle.

The plan to begin testing in December is the most concrete step Baidu has announced so far to get robotaxis on European roads.

Chinese tech company announced partnership with U.S. ride-hailing company in August lift Robotaxis are scheduled to be introduced in the UK and Germany from 2026. A month earlier, Baidu announced partnerships with: Uber Later this year, we plan to introduce Apollo Go robotaxis to ride-hailing platforms outside the United States and mainland China.

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

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

U.S. rival Waymo, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, also announced plans last week to begin testing a self-driving taxi service in London before launching its self-driving taxi service there next year. Uber announced in June that it would begin fully self-driving trials in the UK in spring 2026 in collaboration with Wave, a self-driving technology startup backed by SoftBank.

—CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.