Baidu setting roadmap for driverless taxis in China

Driverless automobiles have been the fascination of humans for quite a time now. Much technology has been developed, but still not safe to use on the road for daily purposes. The same is valid for China, where many companies are constantly racing to put their driverless vehicles on the road. A significant development took place recently as Chinese technology giant Baidu revealed its next vehicle to join its self-driving taxi service, Apollo Go.

Regulations regarding driverless vehicles in China

We know that google owned Waymo has already launched its fully driverless ride-hailing service to the public in Phoenix. But, traffic conditions in major cities of China are way different.

Regulations of the Chinese government ask self-driving cars to have a safety driver to handle emergencies. As a development of the situation government has now allowed autonomous vehicles with safety personnel only in the passenger seat, whereas previous regulations mandated a human ready to grab the wheel in an emergency.

In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Wei, who oversees safety for Baidu’s self-driving car division, said, “This is a qualitative change. It used to be the case that someone sitting behind the wheel could take over instantly,” “Now you are leaving it all to the machines.”

Apollo Go

The new model Apollo RT6 has 38 sensors and is said to have skills of 20 years experience driver. Baidu aims to replace its detachable steering wheel with other accessories making it a completely autonomous car.

Baidu’s autonomous taxis are being tried in 10 cities in China. The cab cost is also relatively less, around 250k yuan enabling the company to go for mass production and selling as soon as they succeed.

Challenges

· Safety is the foremost challenge to be addressed. Whatsoever the technology is, it is still technology, and a risk element is always present.

· Autonomous vehicles raise the question of impact on jobs and employment. Baidu will have to come up with plans to tackle this topic.

· Other companies like AutoX, backed by Chinese technology giant Alibaba, and Pony.ai, founded by former Google and Baidu engineers and supported by Toyota, are also in the race. Baidu being ahead, have to handle the competition with care.

Conclusion

The need for autonomous vehicles may not be that evident to people, but companies worldwide are in the rat race to be the first. It would be interesting to see how these companies can win public trust for these autonomous vehicles where road accidents are the major cause of death in many countries. Whatsoever the future is, one thing is clear, humans are slowly moving towards a robot era where most work would be done by machines leaving humans ample time for their other jobs. Its long terms repercussions are still to be seen. Till then, we must be happy to see technological advancements in the human race.

Shashank Trivedi is the writer of this article. Views expressed, and information provided belong solely to the author.