Baidu Apollo to support Nanjing in developing high-quality ICV industry

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On April 21, Baidu signed an agreement with Nanjing municipal government, Qinhuai district government and AsiaInfo for the strategic cooperation in fields like autonomous driving, vehicle-road coordination and automobile intelligent & connectivity.

Under the latest agreement, all parties will help Nanjing develop an ICV (intelligent-connected vehicle) industry with global influence and take the lead in ICV pilot application by virtue of Baidu's state-level AI innovation platform, the Apollo ICV ecosystem, the “ACE Transportation Engine” full-stack intelligent transportation solution, the ICV industrial resource of Baixia High-tech Zone as well as Nanjing's scientific search power of higher education institutions.

AsiaInfo will be responsible for operational businesses of ICV-related industrial parks in Nanjing.

Launched in 2017, the Baidu Apollo has so far been upgraded to the 5.5 version, which consists of three open platforms focusing on autonomous driving, vehicle-road coordination and intelligent connectivity respectively.

On April 9, 2020, Baidu unveiled the “ACE (autonomous driving, connected road, efficient mobility) Traffic Engine”, purportedly the world’s first full-stack intelligent transportation solution that integrates vehicles, roads and mobility services. Fueled by Baidu Apollo’s advantages in autonomous driving and vehicle-road coordination, the “engine” will help form a modern intelligent traffic system with capabilities of real-time sensing, instant response and smart decision-making.

Up until now, the solution has been implemented in more than 10 cities like Beijing, Changsha and Baoding. It is noteworthy that the Baidu Apollo won the bidding for vehicle-road coordination projects in Chongqing, Yangquan and Hefei last month.

Baidu announced on April 19 it would open the Apollo Robotaxi service to the general public in Changsha. Thus, starting this week, commuters in the city can hail a free autonomous taxi through the popular search engine app Baidu and navigation app Baidu Maps, marking that the robotaxi service is for the first time available to the ordinary consumers in China via mobile phone apps (photo source: Baidu).