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

  • Sampo Hietanen on MaaS: “We needed better dreams”
    March 6, 2023
    Sampo Hietanen, founder of MaaS Global, is one of the authors of the Mobility as a Service concept: the dream is still real, but MaaS needs to evolve, he insists
  • Developing new detection and monitoring technologies
    November 21, 2012
    Established detection and monitoring technologies continue to evolve, but is it time to challenge their supremacy and take a serious look at less conventional ITS? Andy Graham considers the options with Jason Barnes. For ITS system providers, the most potentially lucrative markets over the next few years are going to be the BRIC (Brazil Russia India and China) group of countries, all of which are building many miles of new roads, applying tolling to existing ones (8,000km in China alone) and implementing w
  • International Road Safety Awards: the winners
    March 4, 2019
    Road accidents are a major blight on the world’s highways - but some companies are attempting to stem the tide. David Arminas reports on the annual Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards
  • Polarisation is glaringly obvious, says Sony
    December 3, 2018
    Glare from the sun is a factor in a large number of road accidents – many of them fatal. But there is a solution at hand: using polarisation can mitigate the effect of glare and improve ITS camera enforcement, explains Stephane Clauss The effect of glare on driver safety has been well documented. A 2013 UK study by the country’s largest driver organisation, the AA, calculated sun glare was a contributing cause in almost 3,000 road accidents in 2012 alone. This represented one in 33 accidents on Britain’s