Baidu plans expansion with robotaxis from Zurich

(CONNECT) The Chinese technology group Baidu will operate a European hub for autonomous mobility in Zurich. Carmen Walker Späh, the Canton of Zurich's Director of Economic Affairs, described the move, which was entered in the commercial register at the end of June 2025, as a "significant step for our innovation location". She is convinced that this will further drive the development of artificial intelligence and digital mobility solutions. The canton is thus positioning itself "as a hotspot for digital transformation with companies such as Google, OpenAI and others".

Baidu was founded 25 years ago and has around 40,000 employees. The company operates the search engine with the highest market share in China. Baidu also operates the Apollo Go robotaxi service in eleven Chinese cities. According to Baidu , tests with 100 vehicles are currently taking place in Dubai; they are to carry passengers from 2026.

As revealed by the Wall Street Journal on May 14, 2025 and subsequently reported by Automotive News Europe, among others, Baidu is planning to test and eventually launch Apollo Go in Europe and Turkey. The company is currently in talks with the Swiss postal subsidiary PostAuto to introduce a robotaxi service in Switzerland. Baidu plans to start the tests in Switzerland by the end of the year.

In the press release, Walker Späh also points out that the canton of Zurich has already launched a pilot project for autonomous driving in the Furttal valley together with SBB and the Schaffhausen competence network for the development and testing of intelligent mobility solutions, Swiss Transit Lab. The focus is on the further development of local public transport services through the use of self-driving vehicles as feeder vehicles to and from the station. ce/mm