A transport consultant on Friday predicted that a new generation of driverless taxis rolled out by mainland internet giant Baidu would significantly cut the cost of short journeys on its ride-hailing platform.

The tech giant already operates robo-taxis in small areas of ten cities, and says its new Apollo RT6 model will cost just 250,000 yuan, little over half the price of its earlier models. It's expected to go into service next year.

Speaking on RTHK's Hong Kong Today programme, Alok Jain, CEO of Trans-Consult, says driverless taxis are mostly used for shorter routes, and said various regulations, such as who is liable in an accident, still had to be worked out. Asked about the impact on taxi drivers, he said traditional cabs still had a role to play.

"Obviously a lot of drivers would be losing employment because of this," he told RTHK's Samantha Butler. "But as I said, these are still good only for the small journeys and most of the taxi trade, let's say even in Hong Kong, they don't like to go on short journeys, they like to go on longer journeys. And I think for longer journeys, we still have to rely on driven cars"

He said robo-taxis would be particularly useful in places such as the New Territories, where they could be used to feed into the railway network, taking people on two or three kilometre journeys between home and a station. However practical and regulatory matters would have to be resolved first.

Launching the new vehicle at the Baidu World conference on Thursday, Baidu CEO Robin Li said: “This massive cost reduction will enable us to deploy tens of thousands of AVs across China. We are moving towards a future where taking a robotaxi will be half the cost of taking a taxi today.”

The new vehicle will possess autonomous Level 4 capabilities that need no human intervention, with 8 lidars and 12 cameras alongside the car. Lidars are detection systems, similar to radars, which use pulsed laser light rather than radio waves.

The company did not disclose the manufacturer for the new model. (RTHK/Reuters)