Chinese tech giant Baidu announced on Thursday, June 17th, a partnership with BAIC Group's EV brand Arcfox to jointly produce 1,000 Apollo Moon robotaxis over the next three years. The autonomous vehicles are set to provide ride-hailing services in first-tier Chinese cities.
Since October of last year, Baidu has been conducting public autonomous driving tests in areas such as Yizhuang, Haidian, and Shunyi. Rcently, in May, a fully autonomous ride-hailing service dubbed Apollo Go has opened to the public in Beijing's Shougang Park.
Now, the Chinese tech company has joined forces with Arcfox to release a new generation of robotaxis. The new Apollo Moon makes use of the "ANP-Robotaxi" architecture, a navigation pilot product that will help lower the weight of the autonomous vehicle kits while also sharing intelligent driving vehicle data to establish a closed-loop information ecosystem.
Compared with its predecessors, the Apollo Moon will combine a Hesai customized LiDAR, omni-sensors, and computing unit redundancy functions with a precise failure detector and degradable processing algorithm to allow for a level 4 autonomy. The vehicles will also support a 5G remote driving service and V2X technology.
An electronic display linked to the sunroof on the outside will display the status of a robotaxi and allow passengers to recognize their car from afar. Apollo Moon has a seat belt reminder for rear passengers, an AI voice assistant, mobile app climate control, intelligent car doors, and other features designed for passenger safety and convenience.
According to Chinese media, Baidu's new vehicles are based on the Arcfox Alpha-T, an all-electric mid-size SUV. Equipped with the self-driving technology, the car has a 93.6 kWh li-ion battery and a range of approximately 406 miles (653 kilometers) on a single charge.
With a fleet of 500 vehicles and 244 test licenses In total, Baidu Apollo has accumulated a testing mileage of over 12 million kilometers, covering a variety of complex scenarios. Recently, the robotaxis have been tested in low-visibility conditions such as rainy weather and at night. By 2023, Baidu hopes to launch 3,000 vehicles in 30 cities and offer ride-hailing services to more than 3 million users.
Florina taught herself how to drive in a Daewoo Tico (a rebadged Suzuki Alto kei car) but her first "real car" was a VW Golf. When she’s not writing about cars, drones or aircraft, Florina likes to read anything related to space exploration and take pictures in the middle of nature. Full profile
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