By Michael Elkins
Robin Li, co-founder, and executive chairman of Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), a Chinese technology company, recently made a statement saying that his company’s technology is “a generation ahead of the one already used by the North American brand Tesla” (NASDAQ:TSLA).
Baidu introduced its new electric and autonomous model, the Apollo RT6, a few days ago. The company announced last week that they had secured the first permits in China to offer commercial fully driverless robotaxi services to the public on open roads.
Baidu’s robotaxis utilize extensive use of LiDAR sensors. LiDAR sensors use pulsating light waves to provide a high-resolution 3D view of their surroundings, enabling autonomous vehicles to “see” the world in 3D. Tesla CEO, Elon Musk has repeatedly denied using this type of equipment on his models, despite the fact that most of the automobile industry sees it as a necessary element for the next generation of cars to achieve full autonomy.
"Our understanding of smart vehicles is that being electric is the semi-final while being intelligent is the final," said Li.
Li said that in the next 10-20 years, Baidu will focus on marathon-style investments to "ensure absolute leadership in artificial intelligence and autonomous driving technology.” He plans to deliver up to 800,000 units by 2028 and expand the robotaxis to 100 cities in China.