Tech firms gear up to tap self-driving taxi services

Competition in China's autonomous driving industry has intensified as several technology companies are ramping up efforts to launch self-driving taxi services in an attempt to bolster the large-scale commercial use of such cutting-edge technology.

Chinese internet search giant Baidu Inc is making autonomous driving technology more accessible and helpful to users by enabling its robotaxis to safely operate in busier areas of a city that have more variables for the autonomous driving system to process.

The company has announced it will open its self-driving taxi service to the public in Beijing soon, serving multiple areas that cover 700 kilometers of roads which include the Yizhuang, Haidian and Shunyi districts.