(Yicai Global) July 21 -- Chinese tech giant Baidu has unveiled its sixth-generation unmanned vehicle, the Apollo RT6, expected to join the fleet of Radish Run, a self-driving taxi application, next year.

The level-4 unmanned vehicle that costs CNY250,000 (USD36,975) to produce was launched at the 2022 Baidu World Congress today. L4 means the car can handle the majority of driving situations independently.

The Apollo RT6 will first show up on Baidu's Radish Run platform and the number of such cars is eventually expected to reach tens of thousands. 

The latest vehicle model involves improved safety and product quality, as well as lowered manufacturing costs, said Li Zhenyu, general manager of the Beijing-based firm's intelligent driving business group.

In the future, using driverless cabs will become half cheaper than the current taxi fees, said Robin Li, founder and chairman. Baidu has reduced the cost of self-driving vehicles to one-tenth of the industry standard, or equal to that of common new energy vehicles. The goal is to deploy tens of thousands of such vehicles across the country for commercial operations, he added.

Radish Run was launched in August 2021 and the mobility application has entered 10 cities in China including the four first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. The number of orders has exceeded one million.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi