Baidu’s (BIDU) stock price is rising on bullish analysts’ outlook for growing demand for robot taxis in China. Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Pras Subramanian analyzes the outlook and explains how the company’s robot taxi division could become a profitable business as China eases regulations.
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This post was written by Melanie Leal
Video Transcript
Baidu’s stock price is currently on the rise.
Options bets in particular, which we’ve been tracking, have soared to record highs.
What’s the latest here?
Some analysts have commented that they are very optimistic about China’s robotaxi initiative, and they have a vehicle called the Apollo.
Yes, dozens of trials have already been conducted in China.
And analysts are confident that by next year they will have the scale and revenue efficiencies to make this type of business profitable.
And, you know, this is evidenced by the regulations that are being put in place in Beijing and other cities in China to allow for additional robotaxi testing.
Even Tesla is gaining the capabilities to add it to its arsenal in China.
This means that there are high expectations for China’s robotaxi industry.
What I want to say to Mitch is that, I’ve noticed in Europe, fully self-driving, autonomous driving is not legal yet, and you can’t autopot yet.
It’s region specific.
And even the US is more open to that at the moment than Europe.
From what I understand, they are simply concerned about safety issues.
Even the autopilot feature and Tesla’s FSD are not available in China.
Is there a timeline?
I’m still not sure, but I’ve seen cars like the Neo on sale with sensors everywhere.
It doesn’t work, and it can’t be used.
interesting.
We’re going to continue to track that.
I’m sure you think so too.
thanks so much.
appreciate.
