Chinese Internet giant Baidu unveiled the Apollo 3.0, the latestiteration of its Apollo autonomous driving platform at the Baidu Create 2018 onJuly 4, which involves four mass-produced solutions for developers to speed upself-driving vehicles' scale production, namely, the DuerOS for Apollo, thevalet parking, the unmanned microcar for delivery and the unmannedshuttle.  

Prior to Apollo 3.0's debut, Baidu has unveiled the Apollo1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 versions which have opened their entire units of competency,including the cloud, software, hardware reference platform as well as vehiclereference platform.

One of highlights for the Apollo 3.0 is that the former vehiclereference platform has been upgraded into vehicle validation platform. In otherwords, Baidu Apollo will provide automakers with standards required forautonomous vehicle development and then vehicle makers can choose the validatedvehicles to develop their own autonomous vehicles. 

In addition, the hardware reference platform has beenupgraded into the hardware development platform, which has currently attracted15 partners.

At the same time, Baidu unveiled four mass-produced vehiclesolutions, among which three of them are relevant to autonomous driving area.

DuerOS for Apollo

As an in-vehicle operational system, the DuerOS for Apolloboasts voice and vision capabilities that enable users to interact with theirvehicles using voice and gestures. Meanwhile, the vehicular visual system isable to understand users’ intentions by detecting and analyzing their facialexpressions, gestures and other moves.

Li Zhenyu, general manager of Baidu's Intelligent DrivingGroup (IDG), stated that automakers can complete the deployment of the DuerOSfor Apollo in 30 days at most.     

Valet parking

Using cameras and ultrasonic radars, the valet parkingsolution can help vehicles achieve automatic parking with no need of parkinglot revamp and costs no more than RMB 10,000. Panda Auto, a China's EVintelligent car-sharing platform, and Hyundai Motor are two partners of thissolution.

Unmanned microcar for delivery

Teaming up with Neolix, a Chinese intelligent logisticssolution provider, Baidu Apollo unveiled an unmanned microcar that can be usedin such scenarios as food delivery and cold chain. The unmanned model isdesigned to distribute goods and food for the purpose of releasing human fromoperating travail and helping companies boost their competency in unmanneddistribution.

Unmanned shuttle bus

According to Li Zhenyu, Baidu has opened its solution tomass produce the Apolong minibus, involving autonomous driving suites,mass-produced tool components and the capabilities of safety guarantee andoperational dispatching, which can help automakers develop their own low-speedunmanned shuttle buses