Apollo Program Puts Baidu at Vanguard of Smart Car Revolution

“…Baidu’s DuerOS AI voice interaction system is playing an important role in the proceedings, and facial recognition is being explored for driver identification and even fatigue recognition.”

Baidu, the China-based IT company, is investing heavily in the smart car with a development program dubbed ‘Apollo’.

As the South China Morning Post reports, Baidu’s goal is to develop sophisticated smart car technologies based on biometrics and AI, and ultimately to have road-ready autonomous cars ready for 2020. Baidu says its Apollo program already has 65 car companies involved, and that 84 car models are in the mass production process.

The breadth of the program suggests that Baidu is at the vanguard of a burgeoning smart car revolution, with increasing collaboration between IT giants like Microsoft and IBM, and the automotive sector. According to the Post, Baidu’s DuerOS AI voice interaction system is playing an important role in the proceedings, and facial recognition is being explored for driver identification and even fatigue recognition.

Summarizing Baidu’s approach, Baidu Telematics Department general manager Xu Yongming said the technology is about establishing “intelligent companionship” for the driver, suggesting that such biometric and analytics technologies will play a growing role going forward.

Source: South China Morning Post