Baidu, the Chinese tech giant, has disclosed that it will begin mass production of driverless cars in upcoming five years. If the news turns out into a reality, you can expect Baidu to take over US rivals Google and Tesla Motors in the field of autonomous vehicle technology.
Commenting on the development, President Zhang Yaqin revealed that the company will carry out a series of road tests of driverless cars in 10 Chinese cities. The primary intention of the tests is to introduce the technology in the next three years and also to achieve the target of mass production in five years.
Ever since Google announced its plan to launch electric cars, the Beijing-based tech company is working hard to grab the market share in the autonomous cars space. Moreover, the company is seriously curating the required resources to verge into the upcoming technology field.
Responding to media on the sidelines of the on-going Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2016, popularly called as Summer Davos, in Tianjin, Zhang stated that upcoming Baidu’s driverless cars feature high-precision electronic mapping, positioning, sensing, decision-making including control systems.
Eric Schmidt has listed the driverless car in the top six most significant tech trends. According to Schmidt, around 32,800 people die every year in road accidents in the United States and hence the self-driving cars will attain a prominent position in the upcoming years. He also revealed that the self-driving cars provides a great business opportunity for companies and also saves valuable lives on the roads.
Dubbed as “Baidu car brain“, Baidu has already completed its first active road test of automated driving in adverse road conditions. The company is planning to conduct more road tests in various weather, road and traffic conditions in Chinese cities by the end of 2016.
