Baidu buses go up

Pueblo en Línea 2018: 07: 05.14: 14

Apolong buses leave the production line in Xiamen, Fujian Province. [Beijing, 07/05/2018] (The People Online) – Chinese Internet search giant Baidu Inc. announced Wednesday that Apolong's volume production, the first fully autonomous mini-bus in China, has begun, in cooperation with the Chinese bus manufacturer King Long, and intends to send these buses to Japan early next year.

Apolong, which has a capacity of 14 people, will be marketed in various parts of China According to Mr. Baidu, the production volume of Apolong has reached 100 units in its manufacturing plant in Xiamen, in the province of Fujian. Li, chairman and CEO of Baidu, to Baidu Create 2018, the annual conference of enterprise developers in Beijing

Baidu also established a partnership with SB Drive, the subsidiary of SoftBe self-driving The Japanese group Ank , to bring Apolong autonomous mini – buses to Japan and operate in cities like Tokyo early next year. He said the buses will be used to recover employees of nuclear power plants, as well as older people in communities in Japan.

"2018 marks the first year of commercialization of autonomous driving." According to Apolong's volume production, we can truly see that autonomous driving is making great strides, "Li said.

Apolong, which is equipped with Baidu's Apollo autonomous driving system, can perform automatic driving operations such as obstacle prevention, diversion and automatic transfer Initially, buses will be used in the latest travel scenarios, such as as tourist sites, airports and other closed areas.

The technology giant also unveiled Wednesday the artificial chip Kunlun, which can be built to adapt to the high performance requirements of a wide variety of artificial intelligence scenarios, such as as data centers, public clouds and autonomous vehicles.

China expects vehicles with autonomous functions to account for half of the new vehicles sold in the country. 2020, according to a guide published by the National Development and Reform Commission.

Local authorities in Beijing released the country's first self-driving test guide last December and unveiled a closed test site for autonomous cars. in February.

Zeng Zhiling, CEO of LMC Automotive Consulting Co, is Optimized This concerns the application of autonomous driving technologies in public transport, as bus operational routes are relatively fixed and will address fewer privacy issues.

"The reason why Baidu decided to export his mini Apolong bus to Japan is in the fact that Japan is currently facing an aging population and a shortage of hand-to-hand. implementation, and self-control technology will solve these problems, "said Zeng

. it will take another two to three years to achieve large-scale commercial use of autonomous vehicles due to safety concerns.

Baidu is not alone in the field of autonomous driving. Tencent Holdings Ltd received its first license from the Shenzhen Municipal Government to test smart vehicles connected to designated roads in May, and SAIC Motor Corp. has signed an agreement with Intel Corp to develop their self-driving cars.

(Web Editor: Rosa Liu, Rocío Huang)