China News Service, July 21 (Zhongxin Finance reporter Wu Tao) "Having an unmanned car in the future will be half cheaper than taking a taxi now." It was stated at the conference that driverless driving will greatly reduce the cost of taxis, and may even change the purchase and travel restrictions in some cities.
Is this possible?
Will a taxi be half cheaper in the future?
At this conference, Baidu released the sixth-generation mass-produced self-driving car Apollo RT6. One feature is that there is no steering wheel, which means that no driver is required.
According to reports, the Apollo RT6 has the capability of unmanned driving on complex urban roads, and the cost is 250,000 yuan.
According to the plan, Apollo RT6 will be the first to be put into use in 2023 on Baidu's self-driving travel platform Ruipao.
Some analysts pointed out that its mass production will accelerate the large-scale deployment of unmanned vehicles.
Robin Li, founder, chairman and CEO of Baidu.
Photo courtesy
Li Yanhong said at the conference that Baidu has reduced the cost of self-driving cars to one-tenth of the industry's, which is equivalent to the price of an ordinary new energy vehicle. The cost of driverless cars has dropped significantly, so that Baidu can deploy tens of thousands of There are such cars all over the country, "It will be half cheaper to take a driverless car in the future than to take a car now."
How is this calculated?
In an interview with Zhongxin Finance and other media, the relevant person in charge of Baidu said that according to the 5-year operation cycle, taking the first-tier cities as an example, the monthly cost of car-hailing drivers is 8,000 yuan, and the biggest advantage of Apollo RT6 is that there is no vehicle cost. For drivers, the 250,000 yuan per bicycle is converted to a monthly average of 4,100 yuan in five years.
When will driverless cars become commonplace?
Baidu said that according to relevant data, 83% of people in China have accepted driverless cars, and a group of people in Beijing rides driverless cars more than 600 times a year.
However, an online car-hailing driver said to a reporter from Zhongxin Finance and Economics, "Do you dare to sit in an unmanned car?"
However, Li Zhenyu, senior vice president of Baidu Group and general manager of the intelligent driving business group, said that in terms of safety performance, the Apollo RT6 is not only a car, but also a good driver. Its self-driving technology is equivalent to 20 years of driving experience. 's driver.
"Apollo RT6 is equipped with Baidu's latest generation of unmanned driving system, which has stronger L4-level autonomous driving capability than the previous generation model, and can cope with various complex roads and scenes in the city." Li Zhenyu emphasized.
Robin Li also said, "Intelligent transportation based on vehicle-road coordination can increase traffic efficiency by 15% to 30%; with the in-depth practice of intelligent transportation, China's first-tier cities will no longer need to limit purchases and travel within four years; The intelligent transportation system is expected to reduce traffic accidents by 90%.”
"But the popularity of 'smart roads' directly determines the coverage of 'smart cars'." Some people believe that the future urban intelligent transportation will not only have "smart cars", but also "smart roads". Only through coordination can we effectively solve important problems such as safety, congestion, and carbon emissions.
It is understood that on May 20, Beijing issued a new batch of unmanned manned licenses to Baidu after issuing the first batch of unmanned manned demonstration applications in China.
At present, Baidu has increased its "unmanned behind the steering wheel" self-driving vehicles in Beijing to 20, and plans to add another 20 in the future.
"Tuipao Kuaipao, Baidu's self-driving travel service platform, has now entered 10 cities, and the number of orders has exceeded 1 million." According to data disclosed by Baidu.
Jidu Auto accelerates the pace of car manufacturing?
Many years ago, Baidu shouted "all in AI", and Baidu has insisted on pressure-style, marathon-style R&D investment for many years, investing more than 20% of its revenue in R&D every year, and driving long-term development with technological innovation.
Baidu has released the Apollo RT6, the sixth-generation mass-produced self-driving car.
Photo by China News Service reporter Wu Tao
Coupled with Baidu's accumulated technology in the field of driverless driving, Baidu's car building can be said to be "a matter of course".
In January 2021, Baidu officially announced that it will cooperate with Geely to establish a new company, Jidu Automobile, to enter the field of car manufacturing as a vehicle manufacturer.
However, Baidu's first passenger car for ordinary consumers has not yet been mass-produced, so some people say that "Baidu's car is to get up early and catch a late market", why is this so?
In June 2022, some media quoted Jidu Automobile CEO Xia Yiping as saying that the tight supply has brought about a great increase in costs. Buying spot, looking for chips all over the country or the world every day, and not looking for them in batches, but "looking for two or three pieces".
According to external analysis, Baidu's release of Apollo RT6 may mean that Jidu Automobile is accelerating the pace of car manufacturing.
According to the plan, Jidu plans to officially launch a limited edition of its first mass-produced model in the fall of 2022.
Moreover, Baidu cars may be different from the current new energy vehicles, and will be more intelligent, especially whether there will be "no steering wheel" is very interesting.
During the conference, Xia Yiping once again responded to the hot issues and said, "The price of the first car will not be about 200,000 yuan, but start at 200,000 yuan." In response to the industrial and commercial change of Jidu Automobile, which was hotly discussed a while ago, Xia Yiping said, "Jidu Auto is indeed making structural adjustments." (End)