Baidu Introducing Driverless Taxi to world !

On Thursday, China's technology giant Baidu has announced that it is launching paid driverless robotaxi services in Beijing from May 2. Technology firms across the world are working on their driverless cars, and Baidu's robotaxi launch will make it one of the first companies globally to offer autonomous driving service.

Baidu has named its driverless taxi, Apollo Robotaxi. It will be launched in Beijing's Shougang Park. The company said that there won't be a safety driver behind the steering wheel, signalling its confidence in its driverless technology.

Users can hire an Apollo Robotaxi through the Apollo Go App. Baidu was seen testing its autonomous driving technology on public roads in Beijing since October last year. The company had set up its autonomous driving unit Apollo in 2017, and has been working on developing smart car technologies with other automobile manufacturers.

While announcing the launch of the service, the general manager of autonomous driving technology at Baidu said that introducing unmanned services is an indispensable stage for the commercialization of autonomous driving. "Apollo will launch driverless robotaxis in more Chinese cities in the future," he added.

Baidu has worked with Chinese automaker Geely on its autonomous electric car taxi in a joint venture named Jidu Auto. The venture is expected to invest $7.7 billion to make smart cars over the next five years.

Besides Baidu, Alibaba-backed AutoX is ramping up its autonomous taxi plans. The company has previously announced that it'll begin offering paid driverless rides to public users in Shenzhen. Another Chines company in the autonomous driving space is Nissan-backed Chinese autonomous driving startup WeRide, which is also testing driverless vehicles in the country.

Comments

Among Us Will Be Releasing on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 Soon

Among Us developer InnerSloth, along with Sony, has announced that Among Us is coming to PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 later this year. However, there has been no confirmation when the social deduction game will be released on the consoles. InnerSloth had earlier announced that Among Us will also be available on Xbox consoles as well. The title is also present on Xbox Game Pass for PC. The popular game was first launched in 2018 as a mobile-only game and gained massive popularity in 2020 due to the coronavirus-induced lockdowns that restricted people to their homes. Announcing the update on the Playstation blog, InnerSloth has confirmed that Among Us is arriving for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 consoles later this year. There has been no confirmation regarding when the game will be released. However, Sony announced that Among Us players on its consoles will be getting exclusive Ratchet & Clank -themed skin and hat for their character sprites along with Clank as an additi

Technical glitch keeps Ingenuity helicopter grounded on fourth Mars flight attempt

NASA's Mars Ingenuity helicopter missed its fourth scheduled flight on Thursday, with the space agency blaming a software glitch and vowing to try again the next day. "The helicopter is safe and in good health," said a statement, adding the rotorcraft had failed to transition to "flight mode." The team plans to attempt the flight once more on Friday at 8.16 pm IST (10:46 am Eastern Time) with data expected back at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory around three hours later. The software issue is thought to be the same one that delayed Ingenuity's maiden voyage, the first powered flight on another planet. Initially scheduled for 11 April, the historic feat occurred on 19 April. The reason was a glitch associated with the aircraft's "watchdog timer," which alerts Ingenuity to potential problems and pauses its processes if it thinks it has detected an error. Engineers made a coding tweak that allowed Ingenuity to overcome the problem and trans

Perseverance rover converts CO2 into oxygen on Mars for the first time

The six-wheeled robot has converted some carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere into oxygen, the first time this has happened on another planet, the space agency said Wednesday. "This is a critical first step at converting carbon dioxide to oxygen on Mars," said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA's space technology mission directorate. The technology demonstration took place on 20 April, and it's hoped future versions of the experimental instrument that was used could pave the way for future human exploration. Not only can the process produce oxygen for future astronauts to breathe, but it could make hauling vast amounts of oxygen over from Earth to use as rocket propellant for the return journey unnecessary. The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment -- or MOXIE -- is a golden box the size of a car battery and is located inside the front right side of the rover. Dubbed a "mechanical tree," it uses electricity and chemistry to s

K4 Tech

Search This Blog