On May 15th, Baidu Apollo held Apollo Day 2024 at the Baidu Carrot Run Automotive Robot Zhixing Valley in Wuhan, showcasing Baidu's layout and latest progress in the field of autonomous driving.
At the event, Baidu released a product based on ten years of deep cultivation - the world's first large model Apollo ADFM that supports L4 level autonomous driving. In addition, Baidu has also launched the sixth generation unmanned car of the Carrot Run, which is equipped with Baidu's sixth generation intelligent system solution.
It is reported that Baidu Apollo ADFM can achieve the reconstruction of autonomous driving based on large model technology, while considering the safety and generalization of the technology, and achieve coverage of complex scenes in urban areas.
Xu Baoqiang, General Manager of Baidu's Autonomous Driving Technology Department, revealed that based on the autonomous driving model, Baidu Apollo has fully possessed the technical capabilities required for urban level autonomous driving travel services. Facing a new city, it only takes six months to complete the preparation of fully automated driving services for all areas. In the future, this verification time will be further shortened.
The highly anticipated sixth generation unmanned car of Baidu Carrot Run also made its debut at this event. It is reported that the new car is priced at only 204600 yuan, far lower than the unmanned vehicle products launched by other autonomous driving companies.
Chen Zhuo, General Manager of Baidu's Autonomous Driving Business Department, introduced that the sixth generation unmanned vehicles will be put into use immediately and will be launched in batches. Soon, Wuhan users will be able to experience the new generation of Carrot Run unmanned cars. According to the plan, Baidu Carrot Run will complete the deployment of thousands of unmanned vehicles in Wuhan within this year.
The most noteworthy thing is that Baidu Carrot Run is not only continuously driving its scale up, but also striving to commercialize Robotaxi. Chen Zhuo told Securities Times reporters that currently, Carrot Run has completed over 6 million travel services nationwide. In Wuhan, the order volume is also growing rapidly, with a year-on-year increase of 430%. With more investment in unmanned vehicles, the revenue of Carrot Run is also steadily increasing.
"We are very close to the critical point of break even. Our goal is to achieve break even in Wuhan by the end of 2024 and fully enter a profitable period by 2025." Chen Zhuo believes that Carrot Run will become the world's first self driving travel service platform to achieve commercial profitability.
Wang Yunpeng, Vice President of Baidu Group and President of Intelligent Driving Business Group, revealed that Baidu and its automotive partners will continue to think and define unmanned vehicles, with the goal of reducing the cost of each generation of products by half and increasing their capabilities by 10 times. In the future, Carrot Run will quickly replicate Wuhan's successful experience and continue to land in more cities.