China's Baidu Joins Race to Develop Autonomous Cars
December 09 2015 - 9:59PM
Dow Jones News
By Gillian Wong
BEIJING--Chinese Internet search giant Baidu Inc. is joining the
race to develop autonomous cars, and planning to field its first
such vehicles in China within three years.
Wang Jing, a Baidu senior vice president, told The Wall Street
Journal that the company is setting up a new business unit that
will work on developing autonomous vehicles for use as public
shuttles. Mr. Wang will head the new unit.
Technology heavyweights from Alphabet Inc.'s Google to Samsung
Electronics Co. and car makers from Toyota Motor Corp. to Tesla
Motors Inc. are competing to develop components and technology for
self-driving and Internet-connected cars. Many car makers already
offer features that enable cars to take over critical functions and
increase safety.
Baidu's plan comes as Google is moving closer to commercializing
its self-driving car technology. In September, Google hired an
auto-industry veteran to run its project, which started in 2009,
and it is now tackling more complicated maneuvers such as making
right turns at stop lights.
Like Google, Baidu has big ambitions to use its mapping data and
"deep-learning" technology--in which computers simulate the brain
in learning from massive amounts of data--to expand its scope well
beyond online search.
The company last year hired Stanford researcher Andrew Ng, who
also helped set up Google's artificial-intelligence effort , to
head its research center in Sunnyvale, Calif. Mr. Ng is among the
researchers involved in Baidu's car project, Baidu says.
Mr. Wang said Baidu's two prototype BMW 3 Series Gran Turismo
autonomous cars are being road-tested on expressways in Beijing's
northern outskirts, including on the city's Fifth Ring Road. Baidu
is planning to expand its fleet, Mr. Wang said. He said Baidu is in
discussions with Chinese and foreign auto makers, but declined to
elaborate.
Baidu's plan calls for its future vehicles to operate on fixed
routes or within set urban areas. "We will cooperate with some
governments to provide shared vehicles like a shuttle service; it
could be a car or van, but for public use," Mr. Wang said. Baidu
doesn't have a time frame or goal for making self-driving cars
commercially available for private consumers.
In April, Boston Consulting Group cautioned that self-driving
cars likely won't hit the road until 2025, but autonomous vehicles
could appear sooner in more controlled situations such as automated
ride-sharing services in city centers.
Driverless buses have already been put into trial, or will soon
be, in places such as the Swiss city of Sion and in Trikala in
Greece. A Japanese prefecture just south of Tokyo will be
experimenting with an unmanned taxi service beginning next
year.
In China, bus maker Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Co. Ltd. in September
said its prototype self-driving bus completed a 33 kilometer
(20-mile) drive on an intercity road in central China and was able
to change lanes, pass other vehicles and respond to traffic
lights.
Baidu's cars are equipped with a laser radar, or Lidar, and
sensors and cameras with varying visibility ranges. Its software
draws on Baidu's highly detailed maps as well as its
"deep-learning" technology.
Baidu said its car has been tested on highways hundreds of
times, with several trips each day.
Still, Baidu is well behind Google, whose 50-plus self-driving
cars have covered more than a million miles and are currently being
tested on public roads in urban areas of California and in Austin,
Texas. Such settings are seen as more challenging than highways
because they involve intersections and pedestrians.
Baidu's next steps involve testing the prototype cars in new
situations, such as narrow city streets or wide boulevards, and in
rain or snow. Mr. Wang said that developing an autonomous car that
can adapt to China's often unpredictable driving conditions is a
challenge.
"China's traffic is more complicated," Mr. Wang said. "The
behavior of pedestrians, cyclists, are very different from [those]
in the U.S."
Another potential challenge for Baidu is that China has yet to
enact laws to allow for autonomous vehicles. Still, Baidu believes
such technology could make roads safer. The World Health
Organization has estimated that 261,000 people died on China's
roads in 2013, compared with a bit more than 32,000 a year in the
U.S.
A survey of car owners by consulting firm McKinsey & Co.
this year found that 93% of Chinese respondents were interested in
owning a car with autonomous functions, compared with 76% of
Germans and 67% of Americans.
"There's a great opportunity in China because the traffic is
terrible in a lot of cities," Mr. Wang said. "So we have a chance
to cooperate with local governments and the central government to
improve this situation."
Write to Gillian Wong at gillian.wong@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 09, 2015 21:44 ET (02:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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