Jul. 11, 2018 –
Realizing the vision of the fully autonomous vehicle is one of the most ambitious research and development initiatives since the Apollo program of the Space Age.
While the goal of Apollo was to send a man to the Moon and safely return him to Earth, the goal of self-driving cars is to get a person out from behind the steering wheel and safely convey that person to home, work, a vacation resort, and other destinations.
It is worth noting that Baidu has dubbed its autonomous vehicle program, aimed at developing a global ecosystem for automated driving technology, as Apollo. That program has attracted the participation of more than 100 companies around the world since it kicked off in April of last year. Baidu marked the first anniversary of its launch with the introduction of Apollo 2.5, the latest version of its open autonomous driving platform.