The CEO of the Chinese search engine Baidu has suggested skipping level 3 and going straight into commercialization at level 4.
Since the beginning of the year baidu With the Apollo Go program, it offers autonomous driving in the cities of China and now offers self-driving transport in 10 cities. A million trips have now been made. Waymo from the USA is still the top dog in the field of autonomous driving, but China and the US represent the most developing nations.
Although Baidu has models from Ford, Toyota and Geely, they want to concentrate primarily on their own production ROBO-01, which they developed together with Geely. Together they started the joint venture JIDU, which is expected to deliver about 800,000 autonomous cars by 2028. The Apollo RT6, which has level 4, has also been available since July. The steering wheel is detachable, allowing rearrangement of the interior. Since April, people have also been around in public Beijing with autonomous driving services without on-board personnel. He expects a preparation time of 20 days for the permits.
Baidu CEO Robin Li said at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2022 (WAIC 2022) that autonomous vehicles are more likely to Level 4 and not level 3 will be the first to be used commercially as robotaxis. Level 2 systems will continue to be installed in private cars, such as the Tesla or General Motors system.
People are confused about the capabilities of the vehicles. Level 2 means that you have to be able to intervene at any time. Level 2 models would not be able to drive themselves. The responsibility and liability for accidents lie with the drivers. This protects the manufacturer from complaints and so the third stage will be skipped.
The brief takeover of level 3 complicates the question of Liability and thus increase the uncertainty among the manufacturers. Therefore, the introduction of Level 3 will drag on. Baidu introduces Tier 4 robotic taxi service. The acceptance of Level 4 also improves the view of autonomous driving. Level 3 is therefore less worthwhile for widespread use.
So far only Mercedes Benz launched a model with an autonomous L3 driving system called Drive Pilot. The system is used in Germany for S class models offered. Mercedes-Benz has great confidence in Drive Pilot to assume full liability for any accidents resulting from its use. just got France Level 3 vehicles allowed.