Ford and Baidu to trial self-driving vehicles in China
Ford has joined forces with technology company Baidu to test Level 4 self-driving vehicles in China over the next two years.
Level 4, established by the SAE International (formerly the US Society of Automotive Engineers), will allow the vehicles to operate without intervention from a human driver.
A report by CNBC says Ford’s self-driving vehicles are equipped with Baidu’s autonomous driving system Apollo. The cars are expected to be deployed in on-road tests by the end of 2018.
Sherif Marakby, pr
November 5, 2018
Read time: 2 mins
278 Ford has joined forces with technology company Baidu to test Level 4 self-driving vehicles in China over the next two years.
Level 4, established by the 567 SAE International (formerly the US Society of Automotive Engineers), will allow the vehicles to operate without intervention from a human driver.
A report by %$Linker: 2External<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary />000link-external CNBCfalsehttps://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/31/ford-and-baidu-team-up-to-test-self-driving-vehicles-in-china.htmlfalsefalse%> says Ford’s self-driving vehicles are equipped with Baidu’s autonomous driving system Apollo. The cars are expected to be deployed in on-road tests by the end of 2018.
Sherif Marakby, president and CEO of Ford's autonomous vehicles unit, says the initiative will allow the company to offer solutions which improve safety, convenience and overall mobility experience.
In July, Baidu extended its %$Linker: 2Internal<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary />4362180link-external partnershipfalse/sections/general/news/daimler-and-baidu-to-develop-automated-driving-and-connectivity-in-china/falsefalse%> with German car manufacturer 2069 Daimler to develop automated driving and connectivity projects in China.
The partnership initially formed in 2017 to develop the Apollo platform. Daimler also joined the Apollo Committee, a group whose stated aim is to accelerate research on safer solutions in automated driving and promote the drafting of related regulations.
Ford Motor is to launch an autonomous vehicle (AV) transportation service in Austin, Texas, by 2021.
Reuters says Ford is testing a self-driving system - developed with Argo AI, an AV technology company backed by Ford - in its Fusion Hybrid sedans.
Sherif Marakby, chief executive of Ford autonomous vehicles, says the company is planning to launch the service using hybrids that can carry either people or goods.
Argo AI says teams will manually drive the Fusion test vehicles to map the city’s streets an
Chinese artificial intelligence company Baidu has tested two self-driving cars for the first time along a 33km section of an unused expressway in Tianjin City. A news report says that the trial helped developers collect data on the cars’ performance and their ability to sense the road environment. The test site is part of the Tangshan-Langfang expressway, which is scheduled to open in the Hebei province later this year.
Volkswagen Research is testing autonomous vehicles (AVs) at SAE Level 4 in real driving conditions in the German city of Hamburg.
The announcement comes as the fall-out from VW’s ‘Dieselgate’ nightmare – when the company was found to have programmed turbocharged direct injection diesel engines to activate their emissions controls for laboratory tests - putters on. This week the company’s former chief executive Martin Winterkorn was charged with fraud for his involvement.
But VW has admitted that the scan
Ride-hailing company Lyft has recalled 3,000 electric bikes from cities in the US because of concerns over their braking systems.
The brands affected are Citi Bike in New York, Capital Bikeshare in Washington, DC, and the Bay Area’s Ford GoBike.
A similar statement on each company’s website says: “We recently received a small number of reports from riders who experienced stronger than expected braking force on the front wheel. Out of an abundance of caution, we are proactively removing the pedal-assi