Compared to Alphabet'sWaymoBaidu, known as the Google of China, continues to test its self-driving car passenger service in Phoenix, San Francisco and other areas. It recently announced the launch of its self-driving car passenger testing project in Beijing.
Previously in Changsha in AprilEnable TestAfter entering Cangzhou in August, Baidu has launched its third city test project in Beijing. It plans to test its vehicles equipped with the Apollo Go self-driving car system on a total of 700 kilometers of test roads in the vast urban area of Beijing, covering busy business districts such as Yizhuang, Haidian, and Shunyi, as well as residential areas with a large number of people. This will become Baidu's largest self-driving car system test range to date.
Baidu plans to deploy 40 self-driving vehicles for testing within this area. These vehicles will operate at Level 4 autonomous driving, but a human driver will still be present to assist in the event of an emergency. Beijing's relatively busy roads will likely allow the Apollo Go vehicles to accumulate more training and learning experience.
Like Waymo's self-driving passenger service, users can make reservations through the Baidu Maps app or the Apollo official website. However, it is currently unclear whether the experience will be free as before in Cangzhou. Perhaps a fee will be charged to test public acceptance.
In last year's statement, Baidu stated that it had obtained 45 licenses for manned autonomous driving tests, which it expects to accelerate the development of commercial autonomous driving and thereby improve urban transportation. It is expected that through its Apollo self-driving technology and open data resources, more developers will be able to create more autonomous driving application services. The Apollo Enterprise Edition will also provide self-driving taxis and smart signal control solutions to promote driverless minibuses, autonomous parking vehicles, and enhance the application capabilities of Xiaodu's in-vehicle OS.
Currently, Baidu's Xiaodu in-car OS has been widely used in many vehicles under Ford, Chery, and Great Wall in China, and has joined Chinese automakers including Geely. At the same time, Baidu's Internet of Vehicles partner brands have accumulated to more than 60, and is applied in more than 300 types of vehicles.
