Baidu unwraps Apollo 3.5, Apollo Enterprise at CES 2019

Gasgoo- At CES 2019 in Las Vegas, Chinese Internet giant Baidu announced Apollo 3.5, the latest version of its Apollo open source autonomous driving platform and unveiled the Apollo Enterprise, which is designed to provide a series of “tailor-made intelligent driving products and solutions” for vehicle fleets. 

Apollo 3.5

Baidu said its Apollo platform has by far garnered over 130 OEMs, Tier 1 auto parts suppliers and other partners globally and served around 12,000 developers and collaborators worldwide. The newly-launched Apollo 3.5 is the first open source autonomous driving platform that is applicable for various urban and suburban driving scenarios. It helps developers build reliable self-driving mobility solutions, like autonomous taxis and automatic goods delivery.

New functions to handle such scenarios as unprotected turning, speed bump, byroads, narrow lanes as well as automatic parking have been integrated into the upgraded version of Apollo platform. Besides, the Apollo 3.5 is also compatible with the cutting-edge sensor suits circulating on markets like the Velodyne VLS-128 LiDAR.

In the meantime, California-based robot delivery startup Udelv said that it would deploy up to 100 Apollo 3.5-based autonomous delivery vehicles in U.S. cities this year, including the San Francisco Bay Area.

Apollo Enterprise

According to Baidu's introduction, Apollo Enterprise is a set of intelligent-connected services and solutions targeting mass-produced vehicles. Featuring scalability, safety and great customizability, it allows enterprises to customize solutions based on their own demands.

Five distinct solutions offered by Apollo Enterprise are a highway autonomous driving solution, an automated valet parking solution, a fully autonomous driving minibus solution, an intelligent map data service platform as well as DuerOS for Apollo, a suite of AI-based IoV (Internet of Vehicles) solution featuring such capabilities as voice assistant, AR (augmented reality) and motion detection.

In addition, supported by the OTA programming, solutions developed on Apollo Enterprise can update themselves over the air.

Those solutions will be used for vehicle production conducted by automakers whom Baidu is working with, including Ford Motor, Chery, BYD, Great Wall Motor and WM Motor, etc.