By Raffaele Huang SINGAPORE–Baidu Inc. has received approval from two Chinese cities to charge passengers for its ride-hailing service operated without a driver or safety person in the vehicle, the search-engine giant said Monday.
Baidu, the first Chinese company to obtain such permits, will operate from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in a designated 13 square-kilometer area (five square-mile area) in Wuhan and from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in a 30 square-kilometer area in Chongqing, it said in a statement. “We have come to the ultimate scenario that the industry has been longing for,” said Wei Dong, vice president of Baidu’s intelligence driving division. Autonomous-driving companies around the world are seeking to turn their technologies into a business that is available to the public and start drawing their plans for profits. General Motors Co.’s Cruise LLC in June received a permit to charge for fully driverless rides at night from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. in San Francisco. In March, Alphabet Inc. unit and Google’s sister company Waymo LCC started sending cars without any human control, also in San Francisco. Those rides are free and only available to its staff. Chinese players have been catching …