Baidu Plans To Introduce A Self-Driving Car This Year

[bill]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-10/baidu-may-introduce-autonomous-car-this-year [bloomberg.com]

Baidu May Introduce Autonomous Car This Year, CEO Says

Baidu Inc. may introduce an autonomous car this year as the owner of China’s largest Internet search engine joins companies from Google Inc. to Apple Inc. in developing connected vehicles.

[engine]

What is it with such companies getting involved in this? I can imagine a business with mapping getting involved, but Baidu?

[LifeinAsia]

If you could create an autonomous car (that works) in China, it would probably be able to drive anywhere. If you've ever seen the traffic patterns (including pedestrians and bikes ) in China, you'll know what I mean.

Then again, if they program the same "rules" that the drivers use (i.e., seemingly no regard for human life), they could probably have something in production in about a week.

developing connected vehicles

Why do I feel the government would want to cut out the "autonomous" part of this project? Having the ability for the government to control all the vehicles on the road would be an incredible amount of control...

[engine]

So, here it comes. It'll be fascinating to watch the different driverless vehicles go though their paces.

Chinese web giant Baidu will launch its first driverless car in the second half of 2015, it has announced.

It had previously said it was working on such a car but did not say when it would be available. Baidu driverless coming later this year [bbc.co.uk]