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

  • ProPart AV trial crosses the line
    March 25, 2020
    The perceived safety benefits of autonomous vehicles can only be realised with precise positioning. Ben Spencer reports from Sweden on work by a European consortium which aims to use the technology to allow a truck to carry out an automated lane change
  • Cost Benefit: the economic case for cycling
    August 20, 2019
    Cycling is good for us for any number of reasons. David Crawford finds that it is now possible to access basic, low-cost data which will help make the economic case for improving infrastructure Cycling is enjoying a favourable press the world over as a ‘good thing’ in the economic, environmental and social spheres. A recent study on the Value of Cycling from the UK’s University of Birmingham, for example, shows that cycle-friendly urban settings can deliver annualised transport infrastructural support co
  • Autumn budget: EV charging infrastructure fund and higher tax rates for diesel vehicles
    November 23, 2017
    Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond has announced a £400m ($532m) charging infrastructure fund for electric vehicles (EVs), an extra £100m ($133m) investment in Plug-In-Car Grant, and a £40m ($53m) in charging R&D in the UK’s Autumn Budget 2017. He added that laws need to be clarified so that motorists who charge their EVs at work will not face a benefit-in-kind charge from next year.
  • A new beginning for travel information, based on users' needs
    February 3, 2012
    Despite its name, the EU's forthcoming SUNSET project could represent a new beginning for travel information services. Here, Susan Grant-Muller and Frances Hodgson from the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds detail a project which is intended to exert a greater influence on network users' travel habits