When German and Chinese automotive powers combine, they can end up beating Silicon Valley’s best and brightest.
Baidu, often touted as China’s Google, has partnered up withBMW to create its first autonomous vehicle.
The company reports that it just completed the first successful tests of its driverless car through the streets of Beijing. Using a revamped BMW 3 Series, Baidu’s road tests included a complex set of driving instructions while the vehicle had to respond to its surroundings.
“Fully autonomous driving under mixed road conditions is universally challenging, with complexity further heightened by Beijing’s road conditions and unpredictable driver behavior,” says Wang Jing, the SVP of Baidu and General Manager of Baidu’s Autonomous Driving Business Unit.
Previously, however, Baidu’s chief scientist Andrew Ng had a close call in one of the autonomous vehicles. Proving that anything can happen and that it will happen, another vehicle had suddenly swerved in front of the driverless car with Ng in the passenger seat.