Baidu’s Apollo Go robotaxi wins Level 4 approval in Switzerland

Baidu’s robotaxis are heading to the Alps. AmiGo, a venture between the Chinese giant’s Apollo Go robotaxi unit and Swiss Post’s PostBus, has won a special permit from Switzerland’s Federal Roads Office for Level 4 autonomous driving, Baidu said.

Level 4 means the vehicle drives itself within a defined area. Open-road trials began on 1 June across about 80 square kilometres of eastern Switzerland, in the cantons of St Gallen and the two Appenzells. For now, a safety operator still rides in each car.

What AmiGo is

AmiGo pairs Chinese self-driving technology with a Swiss public-transport operator. PostBus runs the country’s distinctive yellow postal buses; Apollo Go supplies the autonomous driving system. Riders book trips through the AmiGo app.

The cars are Apollo Go’s RT6: fully electric pods that carry up to three passengers and pack more than 30 sensors. The steering wheel is built to be removed once the service goes fully driverless. “With AmiGo, we are making automated mobility in public transport tangible,” said PostBus chief executive Stefan Regli.

Why the Apollo Go robotaxi permit matters

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Europe has almost no robotaxis, and the few efforts are early. Riders still cannot hail one across most of the continent. Uber is only now starting a programme in Munich, and most pilots remain just that.

A Chinese operator winning a European Level 4 permit is a notable first. It also extends Apollo Go’s reach beyond China, where it ran into trouble in Wuhan when a fleet froze in traffic.

The numbers behind the push

Apollo Go is scaling fast. Baidu says the service delivered 3.2 million fully driverless rides in the first quarter of 2026, peaking above 350,000 in a single week in March. Cumulative rides passed 22 million by April, across 27 cities.

That scale is the pitch to European regulators and partners alike. But the Swiss permit is narrow and the trial zone small. The partners are clear about the path: a closed user trial, then rides with no safety operator, then regular service from 2027, in what they call the largest planned automated public-transport operation of its kind in Europe. Chinese rivals are expanding too, and Europe’s patchwork of national rules still makes every market a fresh fight. The question is whether a careful Swiss pilot becomes a template, or stays a postcard.