Baidu Announces Apollo 1.5 and a 10 Billion yuan Autonomous Driving Fund
September 21 2017 - 1:29AM
Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU), announced on Wednesday the release of
Apollo 1.5, the latest iteration of the company’s Apollo
open-source autonomous driving platform that has gathered 70 strong
partners so far. The company also announced a 10 billion RMB ($1.5
billion) Apollo Fund to invest in 100 autonomous driving projects
in the next three years.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/50a70935-80d7-48bb-9099-8aa2477dcda6.
Building on Apollo 1.0, Apollo 1.5 opens up five additional core
capabilities which include obstacle perception, planning, cloud
simulation, High-Definition (HD) maps and End-to-End deep learning,
providing more comprehensive solutions to developers and ecosystem
partners to accelerate the deployment of autonomous driving.
The obstacle perception capability enables vehicles to
accurately identify obstacles during both day and night. With the
planning capability, vehicles can plan the correct driving path and
make optimal driving decisions. The cloud simulation system on
Apollo is the only platform that provides open, built-in HD maps
tailored for autonomous driving. Based on large scale cloud
computing capacity, Apollo has a vast amount of real traffic data
in China, and has a virtual running capacity of one million
kilometers per day.
Apollo is widely regarded as the “Android of the auto industry.”
First announced in April, Apollo is an open platform that provides
a comprehensive, secure, and reliable all-in-one solution that
supports all major features and functions of an autonomous vehicle.
Its first iteration, Apollo 1.0, with capabilities enabling
vehicles to do autonomous waypoint driving in enclosed venues, was
announced in July at Baidu’s inaugurate AI Developers Conference in
Beijing.
Over the past 2 months, Apollo has seen dozens of code updates
each week and the addition of more than 65,000 lines of new code.
At the same time, Apollo has received a positive response from
global developers. To date, more than 1,300 companies have
downloaded Apollo source code and nearly 100 companies have applied
for open data via the Apollo website.
Apollo has attracted 70 global and Chinese partners, including
OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, developer platforms and technology
start-ups. Newly joined members include Hyundai Motor, ROS, esd
electronics, Neousys Technology, and autonomous driving startups
such as Momenta and iDriver+ Technologies.
Many of those partnerships have already begun to bear fruit.
Baidu has signed over 50 cooperation agreements with Apollo
partners on mass production or joint product development plans.
King Long, a Xiamen-based commercial vehicle manufacturer,
performed autonomous waypoint driving in enclosed venues using
buses deployed with Apollo’s 1.0 capabilities. Momenta, a
Beijing-based autonomous driving startup, successfully conducted
testing on designated lanes using Apollo 1.5 enabled cars, which
were able to accurately recognize obstacles, passengers, and make
optimal decisions even at night when visibility is very low.
At Wednesday’s event, Baidu and Velodyne, the world’s leading
developer of LiDAR sensors, jointly announced that Velodyne will
provide Apollo ecosystem members with priority access to product
information, technical support as well as a shorter lead time to
product purchase. Baidu will also partner with Udacity, a Silicon
Valley based online education platform, to foster autonomous talent
globally by introducing autonomous courses, certifications, special
competitions and talent services.
Developers and Apollo ecosystem partners can access the Apollo
website (apollo.auto) for more information.
About Baidu
Baidu, Inc. is the leading Chinese language Internet search
provider. Baidu aims to make a complex world simpler through
technology. Baidu's ADSs trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market
under the symbol "BIDU". Currently, ten ADSs represent one Class A
ordinary share.
Media ContactBaidu International
Communicationsintlcomm@baidu.com
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