Baidu will launch its autonomous buses in early 2019 in Japan

Baidu plans to deploy a large fleet of its autonomous buses beyond China, with Japan being the first to benefit.

The Chinese technology giant Baidu wants to expand its fleet of electric autonomous minibuses beyond its home country, which is why it has got down to work mass-producing these successful vehicles. Japan will be the first to benefit from this service. Thanks to Baidu’s partnership with Softbank and SB Drive, the self-managed autonomous bus service will be launched in early 2019.

The plan is to deploy a fleet of 10 buses in Tokyo and other Japanese cities after their debut, first in Chinese cities such as Beijing or Shenzhen, among others.
The buses have 14 seats and are fully electric. They also intend to partner with Intel to use the technology Intel Mobileye, which has given very good results in similar projects.
The minibuses are full of 360º vision cameras and sensors supported by the most advanced technology, to offer safe autonomous journeys.
The areas of interest where these buses will travel will be parks, industrial campuses, airports and tourist areas.

Baidu has also made public the news of the construction of 100 Apolong vehicles with the help of the Chinese manufacturer King Long. Apolong runs on Baidu’s open-source Apollo platform, which has Level 4 autonomous driving capability, meaning it does not need human intervention in certain situations. The latest version of Apollo integrates with Baidu’s software, which features facial recognition technology and can detect facial features to determine whether the driver is tired, distracted, etc.

Apart from the presentation of Apollo 3.0, Baidu also announced its intention to partner with Intel to use its Mobileye technology for autonomous cars.

With this, Baidu takes a step forward towards the creation of autonomous cars and the development of the most cutting-edge technology, which in a few years will flood the automotive market.