Baidu unveils a L5 robocar prototype and an autonomous driving service platform...

Baidu unveils a L5 robocar prototype and an autonomous driving service platform to commercialize AI technologies

Baidu unveils a L5 robocar prototype and an autonomous driving service platform to commercialize AI technologies

August 18, 2021 11:30 pm

Chinese search engine giant Baidu unveiled a prototype robocar and an autonomous driving service platform named Luobo Kuaipao at the Baidu World 2021 held in Beijing on Wednesday.

Detail:

Robin Li, chairman and CEO of Baidu said the vehicles in the future will be more like intelligent robots, which possess advanced autonomous driving technologies, face recognition technology analyzing biological characteristic of users, as well as self-learning and continuous self-improvement abilities.

“In the future, a car will be equivalent to a robot,” Li said at the conference.

Baidu’s robocar is L5 self-driving prototype with no steering wheel. Autonomous driving is categorized from L1 to L5 – the higher the level, the more intelligent the technology. L5 represents fully autonomous driving.

Baidu spent eights year to develop the robocar, which does not have a name yet. The two-seat vehicle, which has no steering wheel, has a large curved intelligent display and a control pad.

Li also announced an autonomous driving service platform called "Luobo Kuaipao", aimed at commercializing autonomous driving at large scale.

Li said the robotaxi service will be expanded to 30 Chinese cities in the next three years. As of now, Baidu has rolled out robotaxis in Beijing, Guangzhou, Changsha in Hunan province, and Cangzhou in Hebei province.

Context:

Baidu launched its open-source autonomous driving platform Apollo in 2017. Since launching Apollo, more than 100 industry partners have joined Apollo, including Chinese automakers FAW Group, Sokon and electric vehicle startup Nio, as well as international car companies including  BMW, Ford Motor Co, Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda, Daimler, as well as chipmakers Intel and Nvidia.

In May, Baidu has started operation of fully driverless robotaxi service in Beijing’s Shougang park, making it the first Chinese company to launch commercial robotaxi service.

Shougang park is one of the venues for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.  During the upcoming Winter Olympics, the Apollo robotaxis will be available to provide shuttle services for athletes and staff.

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