Baidu's self-driving taxi, Luobo Kuai Pao, seeks to expand into the Australian and Southeast Asian markets.

Baidu is seeking to expand its autonomous driving taxi business to new markets, including Australia, and its growing fleet has reached profitability at the operational level in several cities in China. Niu Haotian, General Manager of Baidu's international intelligent driving business, stated in a media interview that Apollo is in talks with governments in Australia and some parts of Southeast Asia to explore introducing autonomous driving taxis into local markets. Earlier this week, Baidu's Apollo received 50 autonomous driving test licenses issued by the Dubai authorities, doubling its fleet size to about 100 vehicles in the UAE. "In the Middle East and Europe, we are in communication with multiple local governments. So far, we have only deployed in a few cities there," Niu Haotian said. "In addition, we are also in discussions with governments in Southeast Asia and Australia."