Chinese technology giant Baidu, which is better known for its search engine, has a diversified portfolio of products and services. The company is now moving a step closer with its smart car in the United States.

Baidu has received permission to test its fully autonomous vehicles without a safety driver in California. With this, the company has become the sixth one to receive permission to test driverless cars.

The Chinese company had first received permission to test autonomous vehicles, with safety drivers, in 2016. With this new permission, the company can now test three driverless vehicles in Sunnyvale, located in the San Francisco Bay Area.

It now plans to start testing its autonomous vehicles — Lincoln MKZ and Chrysler Pacifica, day and night within Sunnyvale. However, the company has not yet revealed a timeframe about when it will actually start testing.

In China, Baidu has been testing autonomous vehicles without a safety driver in Beijing and Changsha since last year. Last year, AutoX, another Chinese company, was given permission to start testing driverless cars in California.

Baidu has been focusing a lot on its automotive business. Recently, the company partnered with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, which is China’s largest private automotive group, to make electric cars in China.

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AutoX, a China-based autonomous vehicle startup which is backed by Alibaba Group, has today confirmed that it has started testing the fully driverless vehicles in China with Pacifica minivans from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA).

The company will be deploying a fleet of 25 driverless vehicles in Shenzhen and five more in other cities to test the technology. AutoX has modified a number of vehicles from various manufacturers and tested them in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, and Wuhu.

Earlier this year, in July, AutoX became the second company to test a passenger vehicle on California’s public roads without a safety driver sitting on the front seat. The first company to do so was Alphabet Inc’s Waymo.

AutoX has said that the company will not have a remote center. It’s competitors, WeRide and Baidu, which are also testing driverless vehicles in China, uses a remote center that can take control of the vehicle if and when needed.

The company is pursuing the so-called level 4 autonomous driving standard. In this, a vehicle can handle all aspects of driving in most possible circumstances without the need for human intervention.

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Vehicles of AutoX are equipped with the startup’s proprietary vehicle control unit called XCU, which the company claims have faster processing speed and more computational capability to handle complex road scenarios.

Xiao Jianxiong, Chief Executive Officer of the company had revealed last month that the company is currently in talks with prospective investors to fund fleet expansion and development plans. However, he has not shared more details about this.

Apart from Alibaba, the company is also backed by Dongfeng Motor Group and SAIC Motor Corp. So far, it has raised more than 160 million in five funding rounds, the latest being Series B raised in December last year.

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The Coronavirus pandemic has been caused for major concerns across the globe and especially in Asia. The Southeast Asian region has one of the higher human population density, which has made combatting the viral outbreak difficult. However, Thailand has successfully managed to keep the virus at bay, with the help of Huawei as well.

Despite being one of the first countries to be affected by the COVID-19 back in January, the region only has 3,200 confirmed cases of infection with only 58 deaths. Although, the country is still remaining vigilant and is prepared for the second wave of infections. One entity that it is relying on is Huawei Technologies, which is supporting the nation with its 5G technology.

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The Chinese tech giant had recently worked with Thailand National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC). In the collaboration, unmanned vehicles were used at the Siriraj Hospital. These driverless vehicles had the primary task of offering contactless delivery of medical supplies around one of the country’s oldest and largest hospitals.

Siriraj Hospital stated that the pilot project’s goal is to enhance the logistics system within the hospital. The infrastructure in terms of transportation and medical supply distribution also helps reduce workloads and helps lower the risk of infection for frontline workers considerably. At the moment Thailand is the first country in the ASEAN to deploy commercial 5G services.

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(Via)

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Huawei are currently making a big push towards the 5G industry, but the company also has other interests they’re hoping to pursue, namely assisting in building cars. Rotating Huawei chairman Xu Zhijun, the car is changing along with the needs of the users, and that driverless cars are the future. They’re even drawing inspiration from Tesla in their hopes to achieve this.

“Our ultimate goal is to achieve complete driverlessness, but in the process of moving towards the ultimate goal, it can create value. At present, Tesla is already creating value for everyone” says Xu. When asked about whether Huawei can truly go far in this industry, Xu claims that “If Tesla can do it now, we can all do it.”

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It’s important to note however that they company doesn’t want to make their own cars. According to Lu Xiaofeng, general manager of Huawei’s V2X product line, Huawei does not build cars, but will help car companies build good cars through collaboration. They’ll achieve this through contributions in ICT technology and becoming a supplier of smart automotive components in making better cars.

As of right now, Huawei are using their expertise in 5G together with SAIC and China Mobile to build 5G connected cars. These cars have 5G / LTE-V capabilities, support C-ITS assisted driving functions, feature intelligent voice interactions and even have live video calling functions built in. We’re hoping to see Huawei grow in the automotive market, and we can’t wait to see what they bring to the table.

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(Source)

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