Baidu's robotaxi users to hit 3 million by 2023

China's Baidu Inc aims to build a robotaxi fleet of 3,000 vehicles in two years, with total users expected to reach 3 million in 30 cities by 2023.

The internet giant unveiled the ambition on Thursday, when it launched a driverless vehicle with BAIC Group's Arcfox brand in Beijing.

The model, called Apollo Moon, costs less than 500,000 yuan ($77,900), around one third of the average price of Level 4 autonomous vehicles.

Baidu said slashed costs will be a major factor that helps speed up robotaxis' commercial operations in China.

The driverless Apollo Moon has a designed life of over 20,000 hours, which means it can be in service for five years.

Arcfox will produce 1,000 such vehicles in three years as part of efforts to facilitate Baidu's robotaxi service.

Baidu is already conducting trial operations of robotaxi service in some designated areas in cities including Beijing and Cangzhou, Hebei province.

It became the first company to charge passengers for the service in May, when its driverless vehicles started to offer rides in Beijing's Shougang Park.

The company said its driverless vehicle fleet is scheduled to hit streets in Shanghai, Chongqing and Guangzhou in Guangdong province soon.

Baidu unveiled its autonomous driving project, called Apollo, in 2017. It has since obtained 244 test permits and finished tests of 12 million kilometers.