The Apollo self-drving car. /CGTN Photo
This is another move in building a future city. Self-driving cars are being tested in traffic on real roads in Xiongan New Area, a new city China is building to the south of Beijing. The first group of these modified vehicles are from China’s open source platform Apollo, led by Baidu, a Chinese technology company.
Aided by laser radar and many cameras and sensors, the vehicle is reading the environment, and responding properly.
The testing takes place inside the citizen service center, a newly-built complex for companies that have moved to the city. A driver sits behind the wheel, ready to take over at any time, a precaution for any malfunctions that may occur.
Xiongan is striving to build a city of the future, and a home of innovative technology companies. Starting from scratch, city planners are introducing more innovative solutions in technology, attracting more companies to set up branches here.
“The city planning has adopted many designs for self-driving technology,” said Shang Guobin, general manager of Intelligent Driving Group of Baidu. “For example, Vehicle to Everything, and 5G in basic infrastructure could help us to develop a new line of technology.”
So far, over 100 companies have participated in this open source platform of self-driving.
