Baidu recently released its Q2 2024 financial report, showing a total revenue of 33.931 billion yuan, which is almost flat compared to the same period last year. Notably, its autonomous driving business has shown remarkable performance, maintaining steady growth.
In the field of intelligent driving, Baidu's autonomous driving service "Luobo Kuaipao" completed approximately 8.99 million orders in the second quarter, a 26% increase year-over-year. As of July 28, 2024, Luobo Kuaipao has provided the public with over 7 million autonomous driving service orders, demonstrating strong market demand and user recognition.
During the earnings call, Baidu founder Robin Li detailed the operations of Luobo Kuaipao in Wuhan. He revealed that the current fleet size in Wuhan is about 400 vehicles, but the market share in the local taxi service market is still small, accounting for about 1%. Robin Li admitted that expanding market share will be a gradual process and may take a considerable amount of time.
Nevertheless, Robin Li remains optimistic about the future of Luobo Kuaipao. He stated that Robotaxi has long been considered a highly advanced technology field, making it difficult to accurately predict its full commercialization timeline. However, it is encouraging that Baidu's autonomous driving business is about to achieve break-even in certain areas, which is a significant milestone.
To accelerate the development of the autonomous driving business, Baidu is continuously reducing costs through technological innovation. Robin Li specifically mentioned the large-scale testing of the sixth-generation无人车 Apollo RT6, which is expected to bring significant cost reductions once it is officially put into operation, further enhancing the business's economic efficiency.
In terms of business model, Robin Li said that all vehicles of Luobo Kuaipao are directly operated by Baidu, with the company bearing the hardware investment and depreciation costs. However, he also emphasized that Baidu is open to various business models and partnerships, hinting at exploring more diversified operating models in the future.