Baidu reveals its maximally autonomous ‘robocar’

A new autonomous car concept has just been announced by Baidu. — AFP Relaxnews

Baidu, the Chinese technology giant behind the country’s search engine, has just announced a level 5 SAE autonomous car thanks to a new chip. Behind this potential success is an ambitious open source platform called Apollo.

Communications stunt or masterstroke? At the end of 2018, John Krafcik, boss of Waymo at the time (Alphabet’s autonomous car subsidiary) explained that it would be another decade before we see fully autonomous cars on the roads. Three years later, Baidu is unveiling its “robocar”, which the company has created at the highest level of autonomy, stage 5 SAE. It’s pretty surprising, as this level of independence seems difficult to reach.