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Lyft and Baidu to start testing robotaxis in London

Chinese tech giant Baidu will start testing its autonomous vehicles in London "in the coming weeks," US ride-hailing platform Lyft, its partner in launching the capital's robotaxi service, tells AFP. "The regulators are very open to this new technology. So it makes a ton of sense for us to start in London," says Jeremy Bird, executive vice president of Lyft.

LYFT / AFP

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Transcript
00:00There will be multiple cameras and sensors and radar in the vehicle.
00:07It's fully electric, so our depot will be an electric depot to charge the car.
00:13Customized with things like massaging seats for the passengers.
00:17When we think about autonomous, there's two key things.
00:21One is the technology.
00:22So you have a technology provider who can provide safe, accessible, autonomous technology.
00:27And then two is the regulation.
00:29Is the government open for testing and ultimately rolling out commercial autonomous?
00:36And so London is, you know, obviously London is critical to our business in Europe overall.
00:42And the regulators are very open to this new technology.
00:46So it makes a ton of sense for us to start in London.
00:51And the autonomous vehicles will be on the streets soon in the coming weeks.
00:55They're actually here. The first batch are in London.
00:59They need to get inspected and pass that inspection.
01:03And then they'll be out on the streets.
01:04We'll start mapping and we'll start working with regulators.
01:07If you look at like the rideshare industry today in London,
01:10if you look at the way that people are getting around, it's a competitive market.
01:13You know, there's you've got free now and get on the on the, you know,
01:18working with Lyft and ultimately will be on the Lyft platform.
01:20You've got a couple of other competitors.
01:22And, you know, I think the folks are thriving because it's a big city.
01:26It's a diverse city.
01:27People want to get around.
01:28And I think, you know, it can, it's a market that can exist with lots of competition.
01:33We can hopefully, as you get more into the future, this will be a hybrid network.
01:39So we think it will be human drivers.
01:41They'll be autonomous drivers.
01:42What it will do for the customer, for the rider, is you'll get faster ETAs.
01:46You'll get more reliable service.
01:48Ultimately, that will grow the pie.
01:50So riders will have a choice.
01:51Some riders will want it for the privacy.
01:54They'll want to do a phone call.
01:56They'll be really tired at the end of the day and they don't want to, you know, have a driver
02:00and they'll want to get an autonomous.
02:01Some people will love for the novelty and some people will, you know, just prefer that.
02:06And others will want it sometimes and maybe not at all.
02:08So I think that's the beauty of the hybrid network is you give riders more choice.
02:39We'll take an advantage of making music.
02:41What is it?
02:44You're a electrician.
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