The optimized and upgraded Baidu RoboTaxi experience is more comfortable and more like an emotional travel companion than ordinary online ride-hailing.
Article丨AutoR Intelligent Driving Nuoyi
Baidu’s autonomous vehicle northern base camp has been decided.
On May 14, Baidu RoboTaxi fleet officially entered the second batch of open autonomous driving test roads in Cangzhou. At the same time, Apollo Autonomous Driving and Vehicle-Road Collaboration (Cangzhou) Application Laboratory and Autonomous Driving Innovation Application Operations The center officially settled in Cangzhou.
As the northern test base for Baidu Apollo autonomous driving, Cangzhou City announced the opening of the second batch of intelligent connected vehicle test road networks. Together with the first batch of test roads that have been opened previously, the total mileage of Cangzhou City’s urban test roads Reaching 229 kilometers, it ranks second in the national city rankings, second only to the capital Beijing.
Zhang Wenge, deputy mayor of Cangzhou City and director of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, said: "The Cangzhou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government attach great importance to the development of the intelligent connected automobile industry, and strive to create a new highland for intelligent connected automobiles and drive the development of the intelligent connected automobile industry in the country. Cangzhou continues to outpace the trend of "acceleration" in the future. In the future, Cangzhou City will further promote the in-depth development of Baidu Apollo autonomous driving and vehicle-road collaboration, carry out comprehensive demonstration applications of city-level smart cars, and promote the construction of Cangzhou Internet of Vehicles Pilot Zone. Promote the ecological development of Cangzhou’s intelligent networked automobile industry. ”
Compared with the first batch of test roads, the scope of the second batch of intelligent networked test areas opened in Cangzhou will extend from the Cangzhou Economic Development Zone to the main city of Cangzhou. The city has become the first city in the country to open intelligent connected vehicle testing on municipal roads in the main urban area.
The type of test roads open this time can be described as rich.
It covers Cangzhou’s main urban roads, expressways, national highways, etc. This structured design of road conditions can meet the multiple road testing needs of intelligent connected vehicles.
In order to cooperate with the launch of Baidu’s autonomous vehicles, Cangzhou has installed vehicle-road collaboration equipment on the main test sections. At the same time, pedestrian courtesy lines have been added at each intersection.
It is worth mentioning that the “Application Laboratory” established in Cangzhou is Apollo’s laboratory for large-scale urban implementation and innovative demonstration applications.
The laboratory mainly applies digitalization, networking and automation scenarios, manned practicality and other special tests and practical verifications to complete the implementation of technical achievements of vehicle-road collaboration, thereby realizing Baidu’s intelligent transportation solution Cangzhou vision of creation.
Li Zhenyu, vice president of Baidu Group and general manager of the intelligent driving business group, said: "Cangzhou is an important node city in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration and the Beijing-Shanghai corridor. Governments at all levels in Hebei Province and Cangzhou City With the high attention and support of Cangzhou Intelligent Network Construction, Cangzhou has made remarkable progress in the industry. With the opening of the second batch of Cangzhou Intelligent Network Test Road Network and the establishment of Apollo autonomous driving application laboratory and operation center, the project will enter the stage of development. A new stage of development. Apollo will continue to promote the development of Cangzhou’s intelligent network industry and help the ‘Cangzhou Model’ create new glory.”
On the day of the press conference, Baidu announced that the first batch of Robotaxi seed users in Cangzhou can be launched. Autonomous driving manned test ride experience on the global road network.
According to reports, through the Baidu App, register the Dutaxi applet or follow the Cangzhou Yuntu official account to make an appointment for a test ride.
Before the departure of Baidu Robotaxi, all vehicles will be maintained and supervised at Baidu's "Operation Center". This work is handled by Apollo's ecological partner Yuntu Technology.
This model is consistent with Baidu’s model in Changsha.
If Changsha is the southern base camp of Baidu Robotaxi, Cangzhou can be called the northern base camp of Baidu Robotaxi.
The main factory area of ??Baidu's "Operation Center" in Cangzhou can be roughly divided into parking areas for self-driving cars, charging areas, maintenance rooms, calibration rooms, equipment operation rooms, hardware dispatching rooms and tool storage rooms.
For self-driving cars, an important area here is the self-driving calibration and maintenance center and Baidu’s newly built calibration room.
In the autonomous driving calibration and maintenance center, staff mainly perform calibration and maintenance of L4 level autonomous vehicles. The purpose is to convert the data from different sensors on the vehicle into the same data space through calibration parameters. representation, thereby providing a data fusion base for each algorithm module.
According to the staff, the calibration method is based on a specific algorithm and uses software to calculate the internal parameters of the sensors as well as the relative position and rotation between the sensors. Through the calibration room, the calibration time of the self-driving car is reduced from the original 1 day. shortened to 15 minutes.
The vehicles that will be open to the first batch of Robotaxi seed users in Cangzhou this time are China’s first batch of pre-installed mass-produced L4 autonomous passenger cars that Baidu and Hongqi previously cooperated with.
In terms of basic hardware configuration, the vehicle has almost no changes. It is equipped with a customized version of Apollo OBU (on-board unit) as standard, which can perform L4 vehicle-road collaborative sensing with intelligent network-connected roadside equipment. Driving, realizing the close integration of smart cars and smart roads.
At the same time, it is equipped with a Hesai 40-line lidar, 2 four-line lidars, 9 cameras, 9 ultrasonic radars and 2 millimeter wave radars.
However, the car has made great progress in terms of experience compared to half a year ago, including ride experience, in-car interaction, vehicle-road collaboration, etc.
First of all, in terms of riding experience, Baidu Robotaxi performs very smoothly from starting, accelerating, and turning.
Especially at traffic light intersections, through vehicle-road collaboration equipment, you can clearly see the waiting time at the traffic light in the car. The addition of this equipment makes autonomous driving at the intersection more calm, and there will be no rush. lights etc. occur.
When changing lanes to overtake, Baidu Robotaxi will first automatically turn on the turn signal, then perform an acceleration action, and then change lanes and overtake after reaching a certain distance. The overall lane changing process is also very smooth, unlike Novice drivers are hesitant to change lanes.
If there is a pedestrian passing in front of you, Baidu Robotaxi will also slow down and brake very "obediently" and politely avoid it.
It is worth mentioning that the upgraded rear passenger control screen can not only read the time of traffic lights, but also display the trajectories of pedestrians, vehicles in blind spots, and illegal parking in real time.
In addition, the rear control screen also enriches the human-computer interaction experience. For example, rear passengers can select songs online, select page skins, like and rate Baidu RoboTaxi, etc.
In general, the optimized and upgraded Baidu RoboTaxi experience is more comfortable and more like an emotional travel companion than ordinary online ride-hailing.
China's automobile and transportation industry is undergoing rapid transformation. With the opening of Cangzhou's new road network and the launch of Apollo's autonomous driving application laboratory and operation center, Cangzhou and Baidu Apollo will explore a Chinese model. The road to autonomous driving.
Currently, Baidu has launched RoboTaxi large-scale operations in one south and one north. Although the operation model is the same, the climate difference between the north and the south will also have different impacts on autonomous vehicles. Because of this, Baidu RoboTaxi can fully adapt to all-weather driving.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.