Baidu Receives First Batch of Licenses to Conduct Road Tests for Autonomous Cars in Beijing
March 22 2018 - 6:36PM
Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) today announced that the company has
received Beijing’s first batch of licenses to conduct open road
tests for its autonomous driving vehicles in designated areas of
the city.
At the launch ceremony today, five cars powered
by Apollo, the open autonomous driving platform by Baidu, were
taken for a public road test with their new permits in Yizhuang,
part of the Daxing district in the southeast suburbs of Beijing.
Baidu is the only company to receive such permits to date.
“Baidu is committed to building a sustainable,
innovative and open autonomous driving ecosystem. We hope to work
with more partners to pave the way for the full development of
autonomous driving, and to build a truly reliable and safe
ecosystem for intelligent mobility. With supportive policies, we
believe that Beijing will become a rising hub for the autonomous
driving industry,” said Zhao Cheng, Vice President of Baidu.
According to the Beijing Municipal
Commission of Transport, all vehicles that apply for the license
must undergo over 5,000 kilometers of closed course training in
addition to capability evaluations, which include the ability to
follow traffic rules and handle emergencies. Safety drivers are
required to undergo no less than 50 hours of training in order to
engage and take control of the vehicle in case of an emergency. The
vehicles also must pass evaluations by a group of transportation,
automobile, computer science and legal experts before they are
approved to run on open roads. There are currently 33 roads,
spanning approximately 105 kilometers open for testing. These are
primarily located in less-populated areas outside Beijing’s Fifth
Ring Road, in Shunyi, Haidian and Yizhuang. Beijing’s traffic
authorities have launched an enclosed testing site in Haidian for
autonomous vehicles.
Safety is the ultimate foundation of the Apollo
open platform. Before taking Apollo-powered autonomous vehicles to
conduct open road tests, the vehicles will go through simulation
tests, before also being tested on closed and then open courses.
This is to ensure the vehicles’ safety and stability to the
greatest extent possible.
Launched in July 2017, the Apollo platform
leverages advanced technology and data resources to create a
sustainable ecosystem for the autonomous driving industry. It has
so far garnered over 90 partners, including OEMs, Tier-1 suppliers,
research groups and local governments. Baidu recently signed a
strategic cooperation with Xiongan, a new economic zone in China’s
Hebei Province, to help develop the area into a smart city powered
by intelligent transport, applications of conversational AI and
cloud computing infrastructure.
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 Contact:Intlcomm@baidu.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a187bd8e-9a89-4a03-9e84-d8526f9ffd1e
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