CANGZHOU, China, August 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Baidu
(NASDAQ:BIDU) today opened the Apollo Go Robotaxi service in
Cangzhou, Hebei province,
extending robotaxi coverage to the downtown area of a city for the
first time in China. The launch
marks a significant milestone in Baidu's development of autonomous
driving technology and its aim to bring about the era of
intelligent transportation.
At first, the Apollo Go Robotaxi service in Cangzhou covers 55
pick-up and drop-off stations across the city, including train
stations, schools, hotels, museums, business and industrial areas,
and other public spaces. The launch in Cangzhou comes after Baidu
opened robotaxi services in a 130 square kilometer region of
Changsha, Hunan province, in April this year. By
servicing busy areas of Cangzhou, Apollo Go is making autonomous
driving technology more accessible—and helpful—to users as they go
about their daily lives.
People in Cangzhou can easily hail a free robotaxi ride through
one click on Baidu Maps. For example, visitors to Cangzhou could
hail a robotaxi after getting off the train to take them to their
hotels. With safety a top priority, a human operator is assigned to
each vehicle to take control of the autonomous system as a
backup.
The launch of Apollo Go in Cangzhou follows years of extensive
testing and trial operations across several cities. Technological
progress now enables robotaxis to safely operate in busier areas
that have more variables for the autonomous driving system to
process. In addition to the operations in Changsha and Cangzhou, Apollo continues to
conduct manned autonomous driving tests in Beijing, Chongqing, and other cities.
Cangzhou is a strategically important city, located within the
Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei
region and on the Beijing-Shanghai corridor. In recent years, it has
invested heavily in the development of intelligent network
technology to facilitate the rollout of autonomous driving.
Cangzhou was the first city in northern China to allow manned autonomous driving tests
and has built one of the largest road networks for testing
autonomous vehicles. Baidu reached a strategic cooperation
agreement with Cangzhou to promote autonomous driving in
September 2019. In November, the city
opened certain road networks for manned autonomous driving testing,
and Baidu Apollo's fleet began testing with passengers shortly
afterwards.
The ability of autonomous vehicles to operate in busier areas of
a city is a result of Baidu's continuous innovation. In 2019, Baidu
Apollo and FAW Group jointly developed Hongqi EV, the first
pre-installed and mass-produced L4 autonomous driving vehicle in
China, and launched trial
operations in Changsha in
September.
Baidu Apollo is the world's largest autonomous driving open
platform. The Apollo fleet includes around 500 autonomous driving
vehicles that have driven over 6 million kilometers and safely
carried more than 100,000 passengers. Apollo now holds over 150
autonomous driving road test licenses and more than 1,800
intelligent driving patents globally.
About Baidu
Baidu, Inc. is a leading search engine, knowledge and
information centered Internet platform and AI company. The
Company's mission is to make the complicated 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
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SOURCE Baidu, Inc.