Baidu's robotaxi arm is eyeing London next

London, meet the robotaxi

Baidu-backed Apollo Go has started testing its latest RT6 autonomous vehicles in London, and yes, there’s still a human safety driver in the car. So this is less “fully self-driving fantasy” and more “careful, supervised rollout with a very long runway.”

The testing is happening in Brent borough with Freenow, the Lyft-backed ride-hailing app. Apollo Go says it wants public rides in London by 2027, but only if regulators sign off. In other words: the robots are here, but the bureaucracy still gets a vote.

Why investors should care

For Baidu, this is another proof point that Apollo Go wants to be more than a China-only moonshot. The company says it has already completed 22 million rides globally and racked up 3.2 million fully driverless rides in Q1 2026, which is not exactly a science fair project.

A few takeaways:

• Apollo Go is expanding into a right-hand-drive market, which matters because it tests whether the tech can travel.
• The London move adds another international headline for Baidu as robotaxi competition heats up.
• It also keeps Baidu in the conversation alongside Uber, Lyft, Waymo, and Tesla — basically the whole “who gets to own the future of your commute” club.

Big picture

This doesn’t mean Baidu is printing robotaxi profits tomorrow. But it does mean the company is still aggressively building a global autonomous driving story, and investors usually like stories that can eventually turn into software-like margins — even if the road there is packed with regulators, safety drivers, and a lot of waiting.