Baidu unveils first robocar

Beijing (Gasgoo)- Baidu unveiled its first robocar today at Baidu World 2021, its annual flagship technology conference. The robocar has no steering wheel as the tech giant envisions that future vehicles will be more like robots.

The robocar is equipped with L5 autonomous driving capabilities, which is claimed to be safer than human drivers. With multi-mode interaction, such as voice and face recognition ability, the vehicle can analyze customers’ potential needs to offer relevant services. Besides, the robocar can also self-learn many things and continue to upgrade, making it capable to serve various scenarios.

Photo credit: Baidu

The vehicle looks futuristic with falcon wing door, glass roof and exterior sensors integrated together. Inside the vehicle, there is no steering wheel, pedals, but it is mounted with such intelligent device as large screen, intelligent console.

Photo credit: Baidu

Chinese actress Gina Jin and CCTV host Wang Jianing experiencing Baidu's robocar; Photo credit: Baidu

By the end of June, Baidu Apollo L4 autonomous driving vehicles have run 7.5 million test miles, up 152% year over year. Apollo has received 278 autonomous driving permits and has over 2900 patents.

Besides, Baidu also launched its upgraded autonomous driving service platform, Luobo Kuaipao (萝卜快跑 in Chinese) to accelerate the commercial operation of its autonomous driving services.

Photo credit: Baidu

Baidu also anounced that it has started to mass produce the Kunlun II, its 2nd-gen AI chip. With 7 nm process technology, the chip, boasting top computational capability which is over two-three times that of the previous generation, can be used in autonomous driving, smart traffic, smart assistants and other areas.