China's Baidu launched Apollo World on Tuesday, an ‌AI system designed to simulate real-world environments for training robotaxis and predict how they evolve, as automakers race to cut the cost of developing autonomous vehicles. Apollo World can generate "up to 100,000 ​km" (62,000 miles) of simulated driving daily, equivalent to about three years of ​real-world testing by a safety-driver-equipped autonomous vehicle, Baidu said. The system ⁠is capable of producing real-time multimodal data streams, such as camera and lidar ​observations, enabling self-driving systems to directly sense and navigate simulated environments. Baidu said Apollo ​World is already being used for training Apollo Go’s robotaxi fleet to be operated globally. Baidu-owned Apollo Go is China's largest robotaxi service operator and competes with rivals such as WeRide, Pony.ai and Momenta Global. Volkswagen's ​Chinese partner XPeng also plans to launch robotaxi operations in 2027. Morgan Stanley has ​estimated China's robotaxi fleet could grow to 1 million vehicles by 2035. Technology development is expensive Chinese ‌robotaxi firms ⁠have largely pursued asset-light expansion strategies, supplying autonomous-driving technology and partnering with automakers, ride-hailing platforms and local fleet operators overseas rather than bearing the full cost of owning and operating fleets. But developing the technology itself remains expensive. "They still have the ​capex of training models ... ​and vehicles, a ⁠challenge that every autonomous vehicle company is going to face," said Frank McCleary, an expert in autonomous mobility and urban ​transportation at management consulting firm Arthur D. Little. "The speed at ​which you ⁠can launch comes down to your technology's ability to adapt and understand and learn (how to drive in) that environment," he said, adding AI has helped accelerate advances in ⁠autonomous driving. Tesla , ​which is seeking to expand its Cybercab robotaxi ​fleet, uses an "end-to-end neural network" trained on video of human driving to develop its self-driving technology.