Baidu Unveils Latest Autonomous Electric Vehicle Apollo RT6
Baidu has revealed a new electric robotic car called The Apollo RT6. A great addition to its autonomous taxi fleet, and the world of advanced automotive industry.
Baidu represents the general push in China toward a highly automated driving environment. Trying to benefit from the reduced carbon footprint, reduced cost of production, and the reduction in road accidents.
Autonomous taxi service is not a new thing in China, Baidu already operates a large number of self-driving cars in some large cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou under the umbrella of the “Apollo Go” ride-hailing service. The crucial difference between this new car and the current autonomous cars is that the latter requires a safety human agent seated in the front, monitoring the car’s performance, and taking control in case of an emergency.
The Apollo RT6 is a fully electric vehicle with a removable steering wheel, costing 250,000 yuan ($37,000) per car. The reduced cost and design simplicity will allow the Chinese company to produce and deploy a large number of units into its taxi fleet.
The RT6 is a level 4 self-driving car, which means it doesn’t need human supervision, but it has to be pre-programmed with detailed maps which limits its area of operation.
The innovation in Apollo RT6 is that it was built as an autonomous car from the ground, contrary to previous experiments where regular car models were fitted with autonomous driving systems. The absence of a cumbersome steering wheel opens up the space for new possibilities like more seats or even gaming consoles and vending machine.
Baidu has been shifting its focus toward robotic cars and artificial intelligence technology in recent years, boosting Chinese ambitions to become the leading nation in autonomous driving technology, but data says that they still lag behind the USA where companies like Waymo started offering driverless taxi services since 2020.
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