Baidu self-driving bus Apolong open to the public

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Trial rides of Baidu's self-driving bus Apolong is open to the public during the Digital China Summit from April 22 to 24 in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province. This is the first-time L4 self-driving vehicle trial rides open to publics in China. According to relevant introduction, the Apolong is the China's first self-driving microcirculation bus co-developed by Baidu and the Chinese commercial vehicle maker King Long.

In simulated closed scenarios, the Apolong runs on a 400-meter circuit that is equipped with curve, straightaway and speed bumps. It can complete a series of self-driving operations, like obstacle avoidance, swerve and automatic transshipment, without any human intervention. Carrying Baidu Apollo's autonomous driving solutions, the Apolong is able to perceive the surroundings and HD (high-definition) map data in real time, plan the optimized routes and make proper driving decisions through predicting the actions and intentions of vehicles and pedestrians.

On October 17, 2017, Baidu signed a strategic cooperation agreement with King Long for the cooperation on the Apollo platform to work on commercial self-driving vehicles. Then, the Apolong was officially unveiled in November last year. Reportedly, the Apolong will be mass produced in July this year which is two years ahead of the global timetable of self-driving vehicle mass production. 

On March 30 this year, both Baidu and King Long obtained 3 licenses for road test of autonomous vehicles from Fujian provincial government. Particularly, the King Long's autonomous vehicles to be tested are all the models co-developed with Baidu Apollo. As a leading tech company in autonomous vehicle development, Baidu has already got road test licenses from Beijing, Fujian and Chongqing governments.

On April 19, at the Apollo's one-year anniversary ceremony, the Chinese Internet giant unveiled the upgraded Apollo 2.5 and announced that BYD joined Apollo as its 100th eco-partner.