Skip to main content

Chinese search giant ‘developing autonomous cycle’

While Google develops driverless cars in the west, in China, internet giant Baidu is said to be developing an unmanned autonomous bicycle. According to Techweb, a prototype of the world’s first unmanned bike is possible by the end of this year. The bike is said to be able to identify its owner, navigate obstacles and run on its own using an electric motor. The bike, without a rider, can apparently sense its environment well enough to avoid obstacles and navigate complicated road conditions. The device
July 11, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
While Google develops driverless cars in the west, in China, internet giant Baidu is said to be developing an unmanned autonomous bicycle. According to Techweb, a prototype of the world’s first unmanned bike is possible by the end of this year.

The bike is said to be able to identify its owner, navigate obstacles and run on its own using an electric motor. The bike, without a rider, can apparently sense its environment well enough to avoid obstacles and navigate complicated road conditions.

The device has applications in various areas, including logistics, enabling courier and logistics firms to deliver packages and food efficiently and more safely than the drones that Amazon envisages using. It’s even possible that parents could send the bikes to pick up children from school and blind and disabled people could use them to have greater mobility.

Related Content

  • The move towards shared telematics platforms
    February 27, 2013
    Is the end for dedicated, in-vehicle telematics systems now in sight? Some seemed to think so at the recent Telematics Munich 2012 conference… Geoff Hadwick reports. Forget smartphone apps – leave that sort of thing to Apple and Google,” Roger Lanctot, associate director of the global automotive practice at consultancy Strategy Analytics told more than 700 delegates in Munich last month at the Telematics Munich 2012 conference. They are a waste of time and money, he said. Forget putting too much data on das
  • ITS sector must use less confusing industry terms says Q-Free
    December 23, 2015
    For ITS to gain the recognition it deserves, Q-Free’s Knut Evensen argues that the sector must have a coherent message and avoid confusing the wider community with a bewildering array of terms and acronyms. Any industry or group of people will develop its own lexicon over time. The process is near-inevitable, as individuals’ knowledge bases increase and evolve, and terms for common wisdom are created and become truncated, or even slang. A danger, though, as a relatively small group looks to admit large numb
  • Cohda Wireless: 'New York has the best urban canyons'
    July 21, 2020
    Dr Paul Alexander, chief technical officer of Cohda Wireless, talks to Adam Hill about DSRC versus C-V2X, global connected vehicle take-up, the uses of WiFi – and, of course, seeing round the Big Apple's buildings...
  • Baidu autonomous car reaches milestone in Beijing
    December 11, 2015
    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