Baidu is entering the self-driving car race, although it is setting a more basic goal for itself and is hopes to reach that goal more quickly.
While many top self-driving car companies are targeting a 2020 launch date, Baidu is targeting 2018 for “vehicles that will operate on fixed routes or fixed areas in select cities”.
That seems like a reasonable engineering goal, but of course the question is whether anybody will want that product.
The product sounds an awful lot like a bus, so perhaps Baidu is setting itself up for competition with ride-sharing services like Uber.
Originally published at www.davidincalifornia.com on December 15, 2015.
David Silver 