Slashdot Mirror
Baidu Speeds Up Driverless Race With First Full Test On Beijing Roads (thestack.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Chinese web giant Baidu has successfully completed a driverless car test route on a variety of road types near the company's Beijing headquarters. The self-driving BMW 3 Series traveled almost two miles, navigating 'complex road conditions.' The vehicle completed a number of maneuvers, including U-turns, lane changes, and joining traffic [WSJ, paywalled] from a motorway ramp. The autonomous car peaked at a speed of 62 miles per hour. According to Baidu, its Highly Automated Driving (HAD) mapping technology is able to capture 3D road data and detect vehicles, lanes and objects to within a matter of centimeters.
You know what? Screw 'em. Let 'em cancel my account. I'm sick of paywalls.
BEIJING—Chinese Internet search giant Baidu Inc. is joining the race to develop autonomous cars, and planning to field its first such vehicles in China within three years.
Wang Jing, a Baidu senior vice president, told The Wall Street Journal that the company is setting up a new business unit that will work on developing autonomous vehicles for use as public shuttles. Mr. Wang will head the new unit.
Technology heavyweights from Alphabet Inc.’s Google to Samsung Electronics Co. and car makers from Toyota Motor Corp. to Tesla Motors Inc. are competing to develop components and technology for self-driving and Internet-connected cars. Many car makers already offer features that enable cars to take over critical functions and increase safety.
Baidu’s plan comes as Google is moving closer to commercializing its self-driving car technology. In September, Google hired an auto-industry veteran to run its project, which started in 2009, and it is now tackling more complicated maneuvers such as making right turns at stop lights.
The company last year hired Stanford researcher Andrew Ng, who also helped set up Google’s artificial-intelligence effort, to head its research center in Sunnyvale, Calif. Mr. Ng is among the researchers involved in Baidu’s car project, Baidu says.
Mr. Wang said Baidu’s two prototype BMW 3 Series Gran Turismo autonomous cars are being road-tested on expressways in Beijing’s northern outskirts, including on the city’s Fifth Ring Road. Baidu is planning to expand its fleet, Mr. Wang said. He said Baidu is in discussions with Chinese and foreign auto makers, but declined to elaborate.
Baidu’s plan calls for its future vehicles to operate on fixed routes or within set urban areas. “We will cooperate with some governments to provide shared vehicles like a shuttle service; it could be a car or van, but for public use,” Mr. Wang said. Baidu doesn’t have a time frame or goal for making self-driving cars commercially available for private consumers.
In April, Boston Consulting Group cautioned that self-driving cars likely won’t hit the road until 2025, but autonomous vehicles could appear sooner in more controlled situations such as automated ride-sharing services in city centers.
In China, bus maker Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Co. Ltd. in September said its prototype self-driving bus completed a 33 kilometer (20-mile) drive on an intercity road in central China and was able to change lanes, pass other vehicles and respond to traffic lights.
Baidu’s cars are equipped with a laser radar, or Lidar, and sensors and cameras with varying visibility ranges. Its software draws on Baidu’s highly detailed maps as well as its “deep-learning” technology.
Baidu said its car has been tested on highways hundreds of times, with several trips each day.
Still, Baidu is well behind Google, whose 50-plus self-driving cars have covered more than a million miles and are currently being tested on public roads in urban areas of California and in Austin, Texas. Such settings are seen as more challenging than highways because they involve intersections and pedestrians.
Baidu’s next steps involve testing the prototype cars in new situations, such as narrow city streets or wide boulevards, and in rain or snow. Mr. Wang said that developing an autonomous car that can adapt to China’s often unpredictable driving conditions is a challenge.
“China’s traffic is more complicated,” Mr. Wang said. “The behavior of pedestrians, cyclists, are very different from [those] in the U.S.”
Another potential challenge for Baidu is that China has yet to enact laws to allow for autonomous vehicles. Still, Baidu believes such technology could make roads safer. The World Health Organization has estimated that 261,000 people died on China’s roads in 2013, com
I'm not trying to be racist and claim that all Asians everywhere are bad drivers. I've spent a decent amount of time in Asia as a tourist in various places and except for China proper (meaning NOT Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan) I've never seen really crazy or dangerous driving. But man, does China ever have a lot of bad drivers. I remember 4 years ago taking a taxi from my hotel to the airport in Shanghai and it was maybe a 40 minute drive. I remember being on 6 lane roads and seeing other cars swerving back and forth between 2 lanes while their driver talked on a cell phone and lots of cars that simply couldn't maintain their lane at all. Even the taxi driver seemed frustrated, but he didn't speak English so I couldn't talk to him about it. The only saving grace was that there weren't a lot of other cars on the road at the time so it wasn't all that difficult to avoid the crazy drivers. A couple of years ago I spent a few weeks in Guangdong Province and the drivers were pretty bad there too in general. I remember being horrified in one town at the number of intersections with no stop signs or traffic lights and drivers just pretty much doing whatever they felt like. I also remember someone in Shanghai telling me that driver education was a complete joke there and people could get drivers licenses with almost training or experience at all.