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While the audience asked, "When are we going to drive in autonomous cars?", Tech companies have been quick to test them on designated roads. In Beijing, eight Chinese companies flew 153,600 km in autonomous fleet, and Baidu, the largest search engine in the country, is considered a local response to Google. built a big lead.
This is reflected in new data released by Beijing's transport regulators in their first report on licensed city-owned autonomous cars. Although the authority did not specify the conditions of the road tests, for example, the number of cases in which a human driver had to intervene to prevent an accident, ie the degree of "disengagement" requested by the California report, provided the public with an early glimpse into an emerging field.
Baidu traveled nearly 140,000 kilometers in Beijing last year, accounting for about 91 percent of the total distances traveled by the eight licensed transportation companies in the city. The company's leading position is closely linked to its commitment to do everything possible for artificial intelligence. As for the AI application for mobility, Baidu avoids hardware manufacturing and operates an open platform called Apollo that allows third-party developers to leverage its standalone technology.
Apollo collaborated with 135 car manufacturers, parts suppliers and other automotive allies at last count. Its partners range from international carmakers Volvo and Ford, to local start-ups of Byton electric vehicles and to NIO, listed on Nasdaq.
Baidu was also the first to obtain a batch of L3 licenses to test autonomous cars in Beijing, where Baidu's headquarters and the first city in the country to authorize such tests are located. Robocars are currently being tested in more than ten Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, as well as smaller urban centers such as Changsha, where Baidu is working with the municipal government to set up 100 automated taxis in the city. here the end of the year.
Pony.ai, a finalist on the Beijing Road Test List, was well behind Baidu at 10,132.9 km. But this three-year-old company has attracted significant amounts of money from investors, thanks in part to the resume of co-founder James Peng, former chief architect of Baidu's autonomous unit. The South China Startup has Sequoia Capital China as one of its seed investors and a valuation of nearly $ 1 billion after a $ 102 million fundraising last July.
Other self-driving companies tested in Beijing include social networking and Tencent gaming giant Didi Chuxing. and car manufacturers NIO, Audi AG, Daimler AG and the BAIC Group owned by the State of Beijing. Didi, who made safety a priority in all divisions of the business after the killing of two pbadengers last year, traveled the least kilometers traveled to Beijing last year, but the company has considerable potential to unlock mountains of vehicle data that can help autonomous vehicles predict road conditions.
Roadstar.ai, a self-driving startup that once competed with Pony.ai and had a record $ 128 million Series A less than a year ago, is among those absent from the list. . Liangziwei, a Chinese blog specializing in new technologies, reported this week that its shareholders had asked to dissolve and liquidate the company based in Shenzhen and Silicon Valley after months of infighting among its top executives.
Huawei, a potentially formidable actor of autonomous driving, is also not mentioned. The incursion of the telecom equipment manufacturer in autonomous driving is anterior to many other known names. In 2016, Huawei was part of a group of technology companies and automakers within the Global Cross Industry 5G Automotive Association, which aimed to develop communication technologies and business solutions for automated driving. Alliance members included Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ericsson, Intel, Nokia and Qualcomm. More recently, the partnership between Huawei and Audi has clarified its ambition for autonomous technology, providing chipsets to power autonomous L4 sedans (which is more autonomous than L3).
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