Robin Li announced: China's first L4 autonomous driving passenger car is here!

On November 1, the 2018 Baidu World Conference was held in Beijing. Baidu founder, chairman and CEO Robin Li announced at the conference that Baidu and FAW Hongqi jointly launched China's first L4 autonomous driving passenger car, and released a mass production plan: small-scale offline demonstration operation in 2019, and large-scale deployment in more cities in 2020. The industry generally believes that this release indicates that driverless driving will officially enter the passenger car era.

At the conference, Robin Li and FAW Group Chairman and Party Secretary Xu Liuping jointly launched the new car launch ceremony. When talking about the specific action plan, Xu Liuping said that by the end of next year, this new Hongqi self-driving car will be put into small-scale production, and by the end of 2020, it will be put into mass production and presented to consumers. The first batch of open cities will include Beijing and Changchun.

At the AI ​​Developer Conference in July this year, Robin Li live-streamed the mass production ceremony of the world's first L4 autonomous minibus, Apollo. Only four months later, today at the 2018 Baidu World Conference, he released the country's first L4 autonomous passenger car, developed jointly by Baidu and FAW Hongqi. From the mass production of unmanned commercial vehicles to the release of passenger cars, intelligent autonomous driving has taken another step towards popularization.

With smart cars, we need smart roads. Robin Li said at the event that it is not enough to have smart cars, but also smart roads. In many big cities, traffic problems are causing huge economic losses. According to public data, the annual loss caused by traffic problems in New York City is equivalent to about 220 billion yuan. Using the same method, the annual loss caused by traffic problems in Beijing is as high as 150 billion yuan. At present, the country's investment in transportation exceeds 1.05 trillion yuan each year, while the investment in smart transportation is only 24 billion, accounting for only 2%. The physical space of the city is limited, and it is impossible to build unlimited transportation facilities. The solution to future traffic problems depends on software upgrades. Smart transportation has a broad prospect and great potential.

In addition, Robin Li also announced Baidu's AI city "ACE Plan" at the conference, and said that Baidu's AI city solution will first be implemented in China's two most representative super cities: Beijing and Shanghai. In Beijing, through "one network, one cloud, two centers", as well as the application of urban management, traffic management, security emergency, energy and environmental protection, the efficiency of the operation of this super-large city with a population of more than 20 million will be greatly improved, creating a model of super city intelligent governance; in Shanghai, it is hoped that there will be more advanced autonomous driving, intelligent transportation, intelligent comprehensive governance and industrial upgrading, to create a future intelligent new city with advanced concepts.

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.