With autonomous driving capabilities comparable to Robotaxi, Baidu's Apollo II has undergone a major upgrade to become a mobile "treasure box"

On August 5, 2021, Baidu Apollo's new generation of autonomous driving minibus Apollo II was officially unveiled in Huangpu, Guangzhou. The Apollo II vehicle has undergone a major upgrade, with autonomous driving capabilities comparable to Robotaxi and an ultimate smart cockpit experience. At the same time, Apollo II is also committed to becoming a mobile space in the intelligent era, which can flexibly meet diverse needs and provide customized smart mobile services for public transportation, mobile policing, health management and other scenarios.

At the meeting, Jiang Zhitao, director of the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, Sun Xuewei, second-level inspector of the Guangzhou Development Zone Management Committee, as well as Li Zhenyu, senior vice president of Baidu Group and general manager of the Intelligent Driving Business Group, Shang Guobin, vice president of Baidu's Intelligent Driving Business Group and general manager of the Strategic Operations Department, Wei Dong, vice president of Baidu's Intelligent Driving Business Group and chief safety operations officer, and Tao Ji, general manager of Baidu's intelligent transportation product research and development, attended the event.

Apollo II integrates Apollo's latest generation of self-developed autonomous driving computing platform and sensor system, and achieves interoperability with Apollo Robotaxi; the computing power of the core computing unit has increased threefold to 372Tops, which is on par with Robotaxi computing power. At the sensor level, Apollo II is equipped with two 40-line laser radars, integrated with millimeter-wave radars and surround-view cameras, with a detection distance of 250 meters, positioning accuracy of centimeters, and the overall system response level of milliseconds. Compared with the previous generation, the Apollo II vehicle has 155 comprehensive capabilities improved. Based on these capabilities, Apollo II can smoothly cope with complex scenarios on open roads in cities, such as unprotected left turns, traffic changing lanes at the right time, and traffic at intersections. The ODD (autonomous driving operation design area) has also been expanded from closed and semi-closed parks to open roads.

Tao Ji, General Manager of Baidu Intelligent Transportation Product R&D

Apollo II also further improves the safety and reliability of the vehicle, equipped with Baidu Apollo's unique dual redundancy protection: vehicle-road collaboration and 5G cloud driving. With the support of vehicle-road collaboration, Apollo II can reduce the number of single-vehicle intelligence problems by 54% and the number of emergency braking situations at intersections by 90%; while the 5G cloud driving capability ensures that the vehicle can drive safely and smoothly in extreme scenarios. But the outstanding autonomous driving performance is only one of the capabilities of Apollo II in the mobile space.

Apollo II also brings many innovations to the smart cockpit experience. The car is equipped with the world's first automotive-grade 55-inch smart transparent display window jointly created by Apollo and BOE, which can display road elements and driving behaviors around the vehicle. Through the high-definition large screen, users can also interact with the virtual navigator equipped with Baidu's intelligent voice interaction system to gain insight into surrounding food, drink and entertainment information. In addition, the spacious smart cockpit, wrap-around seat design, integrated ceiling light and other thoughtful designs can bring users a new experience.

As the country's first commercial-grade driverless micro-circulation electric vehicle, the Apollo 1 has been deployed in 22 urban parks including Beijing, Guangzhou, Xiong'an, Chongqing, and Foshan since it rolled off the production line in July 2018. It is the only large-scale, regular operating autonomous driving minibus in the country, serving more than 120,000 people and accumulating 120,000 kilometers of autonomous driving mileage.

After the new upgrade, Apollo II will not only have a more diversified, flexible and customizable vehicle form, but will also connect to a wider range of traffic scenarios starting from public travel. On February 9 this year, Baidu Apollo made its debut as the world's first MaaS platform serving diversified travel. As an important member of the MaaS platform, Apollo II can seamlessly connect with a variety of transportation tools, cooperate with autonomous driving vehicles and traditional public transportation capacity, and greatly reduce the short-distance walking time of users, bringing new ideas to solving the last kilometer problem of citizens' travel.

In the actual implementation process, Apollo II can also provide a variety of travel modes such as bus mode, car-hailing mode, scenic spot route tours, etc. for different occasions. As a benchmark for new infrastructure construction in intelligent transportation nationwide, Guangzhou Huangpu has always been at the forefront of innovation in autonomous driving and intelligent transportation. As Apollo's cooperation with the new infrastructure project in Huangpu District, Guangzhou deepens, Apollo II will be implemented as an important carrier for intelligent transportation facing the C-end.

In the future, Apollo II will continue to expand and empower more diversified business scenarios, and be deployed in parks, airports, business districts, residential communities and other scenarios in Huangpu, Guangzhou, bringing citizens a full-time intelligent travel experience.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.