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AI China Transportation Technology

Baidu Starts Offering Nighttime Driverless Taxis in China (techcrunch.com) 28

Baidu, the Chinese internet giant that became known for its search engines, is making some big strides in autonomous driving. From a report: Starting this week, the public can ride its robotaxis in Wuhan between 7 am and 11 pm without safety drivers behind the wheel. Previously, its unmanned vehicles could only operate from 9 am to 5 pm in the city. The updated scheme is expected to cover one million customers in certain areas of Wuhan, a city of more than 10 million people.

Like most autonomous vehicle startups, Baidu combines a mix of third-party cameras, radars, and lidars to help its cars see better in low-visibility conditions, in contrast to Tesla's vision-based solution. In August, Baidu started offering fully driverless robotaxi rides, charging passengers at taxi rates. In Q3, Apollo Go, the firm's robotaxi hailing app, completed more than 474,000 rides, up 311% year over year. Accumulatively, Apollo Go had exceeded 1.4 million orders as of Q3. That sounds like a potentially substantial revenue stream for Baidu, but one should take such figures with a grain of salt and ask: how many of these trips are subsidized by discounts? How many of them are repeatable, daily routes rather than one-off novelty rides taken by early adopters? To juice up performance numbers, it's not uncommon to see Chinese robotaxi operators enticing the public to ride in their vehicles with perks.

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Baidu Starts Offering Nighttime Driverless Taxis in China

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  • by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Tuesday December 27, 2022 @12:02PM (#63161524)

    "To juice up performance numbers, it's not uncommon to see Chinese robotaxi operators enticing the public to ride in their vehicles with perks."

    Blowjobs?

  • This will embolden the people who want their $15,000 back from Tesla.

    • They better act fast, judging by the stock movement there might be nothing left to get back.
      • Remember, stock movement doesn't have any direct effect on how much cash Tesla has available to pay for stuff. I figure it is just returning to a much more reasonable valuation from its high of "more than all other car companies combined", to the point that even Elon said it was overvalued(and got into trouble for that, but not much, because it was basically a grade school recognition).

        Where it can have some effect is that it reduces Tesla's ability to borrow money and raise money via selling new stock. B

        • They had to drop prices (twice) to get their year-end quota out the door. Just like everyone else sales are down enough to be a problem.
      • by quenda ( 644621 )

        They better act fast, judging by the stock movement there might be nothing left to get back.

        Tesla's stock market valuation was insanely high, and has returned closer to realism.
        It is greater than Ford, GM, Toyota and Honda all put together.
          P/E is still very high at 33.
        Good profit margins and high growth at the same time is very healthy. Lots of cash.
        Share price could drop another 50% and not be a problem.

  • how long before an death or major injury?

    • More importantly, what are the actual circumstances surrounding that accident when it happens? We attach too much weight to the fact that the accident occurred, and not enough to the events surrounding it.

      I know it's an uncomfortable topic, and we obviously don't want to be glib about anything that endangers or harms a human being, but we also can't be so cautious that we never allow any scenarios where risks exist.

      I commend them for this. It's a risk, and as a result, we're far more likely to get some in

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        What stupid stuff can the passenger do?

        Do these cars have steering wheels? If so, it wouldn't be hard to detect the passenger pulling on it, or occupying the front seats.

        Head out the window could be detected, but not sure it's worth the effort.

    • If zero deaths was an absolute requirement we wouldn't have regular taxis either. There definitely needs to be some evaluation of safety of driverless vehicles in relation to a baseline of human operated vehicles. Given that technologists and governments are too excited by the new and shiny I doubt such a study would occur or be taken seriously until long after self-driving vehicles are fully integrated into society. 20 years from now: oops! nothing we could have done. Guess you'll have to live with getting

    • how long before an death or major injury?

      This is China. Death or injury don't enter into the equation. They have enough people to keep trying until they get it right.

    • by quenda ( 644621 )

      how long before an death or major injury?

      China is approaching a thousand road deaths per day. So I'd say not long.

  • I do hope that call them Johnnie cabs re:Total Recall.
  • Guys, Just accept that you are falling behind in yet another technology race.

    I, for one, welcome our new masters - Ni Hao!
    • I will start to worry when anything with a clock in it made in China does not gain or lose over 5 seconds per day.
      • Factories build to the specification ordered by the customer. If the customer specifies an accurate clock then that's what they get; if another customer wants one that just counts AC cycles then that's fine too.

        Don't blame the manufacturer; blame the customer.

        • If clocks still counted AC cycles they would still be more accurate than most quartz based clocks. The electric company actually catches them up if they fall behind on cycle count per day.
  • combines a mix of third-party cameras, radars, and lidars to help its cars see better in low-visibility conditions, in contrast to Tesla's vision-based solution.

    Can someone point to data anywhere that shows how LIDAR is superior to cameras in "low-visibility conditions?"

    What I suspect they really mean is that they don't have the tech to process real-time video to that resolution. So they use LIDAR because it is easier for them.

    I don't have Tesla FSD but I use Autopilot now and then. I am amazed at its ability to see things that I can't even see. Like road paint in the rain. Or objects in the fog.

    The supposed need for LIDAR in this application is a myth

    • Lidar vs cameras [arrow.com]

      Disclaimer: It depends greatly on what is causing the "low-visibility conditions".

      But I'll note that the statement was that it uses a mix of cameras, radars, and lidars. Vs Tesla's camera only system(well, it does have radar).

      Each system uses different methods of detecting its surroundings. It should be obvious that if there is something blocking or interfering with one, IE "low visibility", that said something may not be interfering with the others.

      For example, low light can interfere wi

      • "Tesla's camera only system(well, it does have radar)" I don't think so... re: https://www.tesla.com/support/... [tesla.com] "In 2021, we began our transition to Tesla Vision by removing radar from Model 3 and Model Y, followed by Model S and Model X in 2022. Today, in most regions around the globe, these vehicles now rely on Tesla Vision, our camera-based Autopilot system."
      • The cameras are also subject to blinding around intense light sources. So they can't see something darker that is right next to a light source.

        I don't think this is right.

        The Tesla entertainment display shows a real-time (seems to lag by 10-30ms) of the proximity of the car. It ignores most objects and other categories of objects are sporadic, but there are things that it paints extremely reliably. One of those things are traffic lights and their current state.

        With the understanding that this is an entertainment display and not a visual to use in controlling the car, I have never seen it make a mistake, even when I can't see the traffic lig

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