Baidu Plans Fully Self-Driving Bus in China Next Year
October 17 2017 - 9:15PM
Dow Jones News
By Jack Nicas
LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. -- Chinese search giant Baidu Inc. is
pushing aggressively ahead with autonomous vehicles, its chief
executive said, including plans to release a fully self-driving bus
in China next year.
Baidu is betting it can be a major player in self-driving
vehicles with its open-source autonomous-vehicle software called
Apollo that it unveiled this year, Baidu Chairman and CEO Robin Li
said at The Wall Street Journal's WSJ D.Live technology conference
Tuesday. Mr. Li said Baidu is joining with Chinese car maker BAIC
Motor Corp. to mass produce partially autonomous cars running
Apollo by 2019, and fully autonomous cars by 2021.
But first, Baidu aims to complete a fully self-driving bus --
running on a designated route -- with a Chinese bus maker by next
year.
Baidu is hoping its open-source software is more appealing to
car makers wary of joining with Waymo, the driverless-car unit of
Google parent Alphabet Inc. Mr. Li said he pitches car makers that
Apollo will give them more control of their data and user
experience than a closed system like Waymo's. "You have much better
control over your destiny," he said.
Most industry experts agree, however, that Waymo has the most
advanced self-driving technology, which it began developing in
2009.
Because Apollo is open source, Baidu likely won't make money
from selling the software, but Mr. Li said there are many other
business opportunities, including selling data, simulation systems,
high-definition maps and even writing insurance policies. "It's a
very large market," he said. How big? "Too large to estimate." Mr.
Li said autos represent one-sixth of China's GDP.
Baidu is also planning an immersive technology experience in
self-driving cars, with interactive screens and entertainment, Mr.
Li said. "When a passenger gets in a car, our vision is you never
need to touch your phone anymore," he said.
Mr. Li said Baidu spends about $1.5 billion on research and
development each year, or roughly 15% of its revenue. "Pretty much
all of that is AI-related," he said.
Write to Jack Nicas at jack.nicas@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 17, 2017 21:00 ET (01:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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