Baidu plans expansion in the area of robotaxis from Zurich

The Chinese technology group Baidu has chosen Zurich for the site of its European hub for autonomous mobility. Carmen Walker Späh, Director of Economic Affairs of the Canton of Zurich, describes in an announcement the settlement of the company which made its entry into the commercial register at the end of June 2025 as a “major step forward for our innovation location”. She additionally expresses her conviction that this will further drive the development of Artificial Intelligence and digital mobility solutions in the region. In this way, the canton is positioning itself “as a hotspot for the digital transformation alongside companies such as Google and OpenAI, among others”, she says.

Baidu was founded 25 years ago and employs around 40,000 staff. The company operates the search engine with the highest market share in China. Moreover, Baidu offers the robotaxi service Apollo Go in 11 Chinese cities. Tests are currently being carried out with 100 vehicles in Dubai, Baidu states, and these are expected to carry passengers from 2026 onwards.

As revealed by the Wall Street Journal on May 14, 2025, and subsequently reported by Automotive News Europe, among other outlets, Baidu plans to test and eventually launch Apollo Go in Europe and Türkiye. The report further states that the company is in talks with PostAuto, the Swiss Postal Service subsidiary, to launch a robotaxi service in Switzerland. According to Baidu, testing in Switzerland is set to commence before the end of this year.

In her announcement, Walker Späh also points out that the Canton of Zurich, together with SBB and Swiss Transit Lab, the Schaffhausen-based competence network for the development and testing of intelligent mobility solutions, has already launched a pilot project for autonomous driving in the Furttal valley region. The focus here is on further developing local public transport through the use of self-driving vehicles as a shuttle service to and from the train station.