On Thursday, the world’s largest search engine, Baidu Inc., showcased its new autonomous vehicle with a removable steering wheel, with plans to utilize it for its robotaxi service in China the next year.
According to a statement from Baidu, the cost per unit will reduce to 250,000 yuan ($37,031.55) for the new model from 480,000 yuan for the previous iteration.
We will be able to deploy tens of thousands of AVs across China thanks to this tremendous cost reduction “At the Baidu World conference, Robin Li, the company’s CEO, made a statement. ”It won’t cost as much to take a robotaxi in the future as it does to take a taxi right now.
The new vehicle will include eight lidars and twelve cameras alongside the car, giving it autonomous Level 4 capabilities that do not require human involvement. Similar to radars, lidars are detection devices, except instead of using radio waves, they employ pulsed laser light.
The new model’s maker was kept a secret by the corporation.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, stated that the business plans to begin mass producing its robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals in 2024 and forecasted that a ride in one will be less expensive than a bus ticket.
A robotaxi without a steering wheel was also unveiled by Alphabet Inc’s Waymo last year. The company said it aimed to introduce its “completely autonomous vehicles” in the U.S. over the following years.
To deploy such vehicles in the real world, automakers and IT firms all around the world are still awaiting regulatory approval.
When the Chinese government approves it, the car won’t have a steering wheel, according to Baidu Senior Vice President Li Zhenyu, who also added that the new AV can drive just as well as a qualified human driver with more than 20 years of experience.
One of several Chinese companies working to make the widespread usage of driverless vehicles a reality is Baidu, which created its autonomous driving division Apollo in 2017.
Pony.ai, which is supported by Toyota Motor, and WeRide, which has received funding from Nissan Motor and Guangzhou Automobile Group, are some of its competitors in this market.
Since its inception in 10 Chinese cities in 2020, Apollo Go, Baidu’s robotaxi service, has operated over 1 million times, and in April, Baidu announced that it has been granted permission to use robotaxis in Beijing that are not operated by people in the driver’s seat on public roads.
