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Baidu Announces New Open Platform To Help Speed Up Development of Self-Driving Cars (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the slow-and-steady dept.

Chinese tech giant Baidu has announced a new autonomous vehicle platform called Project Apollo, which aims to help speed up the development of self-driving cars. "Baidu says the platform encompasses both hardware and software, providing partners with the tech and open-source code needed to help their own vehicles perceive obstacles, plan their routes, and otherwise move around our world," reports The Verge. From the report: Baidu says it will first open up Project Apollo for cars operating in restricted environments in July, before offering it to vehicles driving in simple urban road conditions later this year. That's ahead of a gradual rollout of self-driving features that should see cars operating fully autonomously on highways and regular roads by 2020. The release comes as Baidu moves to position itself at the forefront of the autonomous vehicle industry. The Chinese company has aimed for the ambitious goal of getting a self-driving car to market by 2018, and is challenging rivals such as Google on its home turf, building a team of engineers based in Silicon Valley and scoring relevant permits so it can test vehicles in California.

27 comments

  1. Who'd they pirate it from? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If they took it from Google, did they remove the spyware?

  2. Now with a new, free feature!! by XB-70 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Every Baidu self-driving car comes with a free, hidden, back door!

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    *** Don't be dull.***
    1. Re:Now with a new, free feature!! by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      So it's a stealth hatchback?

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      #DeleteFacebook
    2. Re:Now with a new, free feature!! by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Indeed, It's an open and shut case- I mean Trunk.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    3. Re:Now with a new, free feature!! by kiviQr · · Score: 2

      Hatchback!?

  3. Stop with the self-driving cars already! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Focus all the efforts on electric cars, batteries, green energy, etc!

    We're living on the Titanic and we're sinking but everyone's focusing on picking colours and patterns for the tablecloths.

    1. Re:Stop with the self-driving cars already! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're not fully understanding the situation.

      The focus is on self-driving vehicles because that's what will reduce the freedom and independence of the public at large the most.

      Electric cars aren't much different from the situation we have today. As an individual, you'd still be able to drive yourself where you want, when you want, and how you want. There would still be a need for truck drivers, bus drivers, taxi drivers, and other sorts of drivers. Whether you're putting gas into your car's gas tank, or electricity into a battery, is actually quite irrelevant. In fact, it may even give you more freedom, as you could potentially generate your own electricity using independent solar panels or wind turbines.

      On the other hand, self-driving cars affect the human aspect, especially when they're taken to the point that humans have no control at all, in the name of "safety". Now you've lost the ability to drive yourself where you want, when you want, and how you want. There is no need for truck drivers, bus drivers, taxi drivers, and other sorts of drivers.

      This is exactly what the political/technocratic leftists are trying to accomplish: humans are taken out of the transportation equation, which makes them easier to control (via their mobility, especially in a large car-oriented country like the USA) and it takes away a source of prosperity (from those whose business it is to drive vehicles or transport goods using vehicles).

      The political/technocratic leftists want a large, immobile, poor populace that they can control. Taking control of transportation is an effective way of accomplishing this.

      You seem to think that protecting the environment is the end goal of the political/technocratic leftists. It's nothing of the sort. Rather, the environment is just another tool they use to try to control otherwise free people. Control is their end goal. "Protecting the environment", much like "safety", is something leftists use to try to justify the freedom they're trying to take from society at large.

    2. Re:Stop with the self-driving cars already! by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 2

      Love how you've spun that out as leftist when it will largely be the unions who try to fight against self driving cars, buses, trucks and trains.

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    3. Re:Stop with the self-driving cars already! by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      bus drivers also act as sub security guard and fair enforcement. Now with an auto drive bus they can be more of a security guard / fair enforcement person and not need to keep there eyes on the road.

    4. Re:Stop with the self-driving cars already! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And who's going to keep their eyes on your grammar?

    5. Re:Stop with the self-driving cars already! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not the 1950s, you know.

      Unions are no longer associated with the political left. Or more accurately, the political left has moved so far to the left that they've left the unions in what's now the center of the political spectrum.

      Today, the policies of the modern political left are actually at odds with those of unions. For example, unions don't benefit from a large amount of cheap, third-world labor being imported, yet importing such third-worlders at the highest rate possible is a core part of modern leftism. The left's push for extreme regulation and taxation also doesn't benefit unions. The left's push for offshoring really, really doesn't help domestic unions. Unions especially don't benefit from the leftist's divisive race/gender/sexuality/trait-based identity politics, because unions are about bringing together people regardless of their traits.

      In fact, President Trump got a huge amount of support from the unions and their members during the 2016 election. The political left has gotten so extreme that unions now find themselves better off associating with the political right!

    6. Re:Stop with the self-driving cars already! by mrsquid0 · · Score: 1

      In many places in the US bus drivers are told not to enforce fare payment. A $2.00 fare is not worth a driver's life.

      --
      Just because you are paranoid does not mean that no-one is out to get you.
  4. C'm on. All of 'em have backdoors. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    After Intel's IME and AMD's PSP you're pretty naive if you believe that

      - no intelligence agency (especially US three-letters, but that's a *funding* thing, not a *moral* thing: the others will do if they can) has its grubby dirty fingers all over that
      - American (or britsh or EUish or Israeli, or Iranian or...) are somehow "better", more moral, than Chinese intelligence agencies.

  5. open in future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > new project named "Apollo" which _will_ provide an open, complete and reliable software platform

    They state that "will" means July.

    Hopefully they beat the usual trend of companies that promise open software/hardware in the future, presumably for marketing reasons, with that future never coming. I hope that the name Apollo is a good indication of intent.

  6. Self driving by 2018? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    A self driving car to maket by 2018? Wow! They must have advanced much faster than I thought. Autonomous driving is right around the corner!

    1. Re:Self driving by 2018? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Clearly when they say "to market" they mean in China and not the US or anywhere in Europe. Even if they had it up for regulatory review by the beginning of this year, it would still be impressive to have it to market by the end of 2018.

  7. Sad news ... Aaron Hernandez, dead at 24 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just heard some sad news on talk radio - New England Patriot/Murderer Aaron Hernandez was found dead in his jail cell this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an NFL icon.

  8. A new platform....relevant xkcd by zmaragdus · · Score: 2

    https://xkcd.com/927/

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    (((dB)))
  9. Apollo? No Chinese mythology gods? by swb · · Score: 2

    I think it's kind of funny that they would choose a Greco-Roman cultural figure for their project name. Were there no gods of Chinese mythology available?

  10. ez pz by ogg2017 · · Score: 2

    ...and it will automatically drive you to the police station for your bi-weekly security interview and beating.

  11. Re:Apollo? No Chinese mythology gods? by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 2

    I think they just want to appeal to a more western market

    --

    Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  12. Re:Apollo? No Chinese mythology gods? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    "Project Clint Eastwood" doesn't appeal to me either.

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    #DeleteFacebook
  13. I trust Baidu even less than I trust Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm sure being subjected to riding in a so-called 'self driving car' in China and made in China would be even more nightmarish than it will be here, because you KNOW that the State can and will take control of the vehicle you're riding in at any time for any reason, is definitely spying on you while you're in it, may well just reroute you somewhere else, and may just run you off a cliff or into a stationary object to kill you.

    1. Re:I trust Baidu even less than I trust Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like something the C.I.A. would do with a Google car?

    2. Re:I trust Baidu even less than I trust Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, but only if you're Chinese.

  14. Re:Apollo? No Chinese mythology gods? by slew · · Score: 2

    I think it's kind of funny that they would choose a Greco-Roman cultural figure for their project name. Were there no gods of Chinese mythology available?

    I think Baidu was looking for an association with a "moon-shot" like Google, and called it Apollo as to not confuse it with the Chinese moon program (Chang'e), which unlike the Apollo program is still ongoing.

  15. Open-Source by b0bby · · Score: 1

    Sure, all the spyware jokes are funny, but this really sounds cool to me. A well funded open source project, with hardware available, could allow for some neat experiments. Plus it just adds to the competition and I want my self driving car ASAP.