Skip to main content

Baidu autonomous car reaches milestone in Beijing

An autonomous car developed by Chinese language Internet search provider Baidu has successfully completed rigorous, fully autonomous tests on one route with mixed roads under a variety of environmental conditions, says the company. The Baidu autonomous car is the first in China to have demonstrated full autonomy under mixed road conditions, marking a milestone in China's autonomous driving effort. The road tests were carried out under complex road conditions, and the Baidu vehicle, a modified BMW 3 Serie
December 11, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
An autonomous car developed by Chinese language Internet search provider Baidu has successfully completed rigorous, fully autonomous tests on one route with mixed roads under a variety of environmental conditions, says the company.

The Baidu autonomous car is the first in China to have demonstrated full autonomy under mixed road conditions, marking a milestone in China's autonomous driving effort. The road tests were carried out under complex road conditions, and the Baidu vehicle, a modified BMW 3 Series, completed the tests by executing a comprehensive set of driving actions and accurately responding to the driving environment.

Baidu claims the car demonstrated full autonomy on the entirety of the 30 kilometre test route and successfully executed driving actions including making right turns, left turns and U-turns, decelerating when detecting vehicles ahead, changing lanes, passing other cars and merging into traffic from on-ramps and exiting from off-ramps. The car speed peaked at 100 km per hour during the test runs.

Baidu AutoBrain, the core of Baidu's autonomous driving technology, includes highly automated driving (HAD) maps, positioning, detection, smart decision-making and control.

Baidu's self-developed HAD maps record 3D road data to within a few centimetres of accuracy of vehicle positioning. With Baidu's leading object recognition and environment perception technology, the car can detect, recognise, and follow other vehicles with high accuracy; recognise road lanes; and accurately gauge distance and velocity.

"Fully autonomous driving under mixed road conditions is universally challenging, with complexity further heightened by Beijing's road conditions and unpredictable driver behaviour," said Wang Jing, SVP of Baidu and general manager of Baidu's newly established Autonomous Driving Business Unit.

Related Content

  • Artificial Intelligence applications for commercial vehicle operations
    December 28, 2021
    The combination of machine learning, deep neural networks and computer vision provides opportunities to address in new ways an increasing range of functions that are a part of commercial vehicle operations. Here, IRD’s Rish Malhotra details how.
  • Public invited to take part in Greenwich driverless pod trial
    March 9, 2018
    Members of the public are invited to trial a fleet of driverless pods operating on a 3.4km route around Greenwich Peninsula as part of the £100m ($139m) Gateway project’s final phase. The pilot aims to understand the public acceptance of, and attitudes towards, driverless vehicles. The four pods will use advanced sensors and autonomy software to detect and avoid obstacles while carrying passengers. The vehicles, developed by Westfield Sportscars and Heathrow Enterprises, have no steering wheels or typical
  • Driverless-vehicle options now include scooters
    November 9, 2016
    Researchers have developed an autonomous mobility scooter which could, in principle, use a scooter to get down the hall and through the lobby of an apartment building, take a golf cart across the building’s parking lot, and pick up an autonomous car on the public roads.
  • Delphi to provide active safety systems for next-generation Chinese SUVs
    July 11, 2017
    Chinese SUV manufacturer Great Wall Motors has selected UK company Delphi to provide a suite of active safety technologies for its next-generation SUVs. The Great Wall Haval series of SUVs have been the best-selling SUV in China for 14 consecutive years.