Hankook equips Baidu's robotaxi with tires

Hankook Tire announced that it has signed a strategic partnership agreement with the Apollo Go autonomous taxi service, created by tech giant Baidu, and has begun equipping vehicles operated in Wuhan with its tires. 

For the robotaxi, all-season tires with increased comfort Hankook iON ST AS are supplied, which, like other models from the iON family, were developed specifically for electric vehicles and combine low noise and increased wear resistance, while reducing rolling resistance allows to increase energy consumption efficiency.

Currently, the Apollo Go service operates in more than 10 cities in China, such as Wuhan and Chongqing. Baidu has been working on autonomous transportation developments since 2013, and in 2017, the Apollo technology platform became publicly available. 

"For us, it is a great honor to become a strategic partner of Apollo Go, — said in the Chinese division of Hankook. — iON tires for vehicles on new energy sources not only demonstrate our achievements in adapting products for use on electric transport, but also confirm our desire to contribute to the development of "green" mobility. We are confident that thanks to this cooperation, passenger transportation in Wuhan will become more environmentally friendly and comfortable".