Mobility of the future The Smart Car is followed by the AI Car

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Baidu firmly believes that artificial intelligence will trigger the next big technological leap in the automotive industry. The Chinese internet company is banking on the AI car as the next incarnation of the vehicle. Or to put it simply: the electric car was followed by the smart car, and next comes the AI car.

Henrik Bork, a long-time China correspondent for the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Frankfurter Rundschau/Germany, is Managing Director at Asia Waypoint, a Beijing-based consulting agency specializing in China.

Whether this will be the case is currently a bit hard to assess. Nevertheless, this vision from Baidu has already generated the first "AI Day" of the Chinese automotive industry. On March 25, Baidu and car manufacturer Geely, who have jointly founded the Robocar joint venture Ji Yue, presented their latest software at this event.

Pure Vision instead of Lidar

So far, only Tesla has hosted an AI day and tried to market its vehicles using this new technology. This is new in China. And the car joint venture is also following Tesla's path in another way: As with Tesla, Ji Yue is now relying on "Pure Vision" for autonomous driving instead of Lidar.

This may all be very modern, but unfortunately, it has a big catch. So far, Ji Yue's cars have been more of a shelf warmer. In 2023, only 774 units of the Robocars were sold, reports the Chinese industry service Qiche Tongxunshe. "Ji Yue Auto now faces the embarrassing situation that it is praised everywhere but is not popular," says the trade medium. Is it perhaps too early to want to sell cars with the focus on AI alone? In any case, many car drivers in China are currently confused when all the technical innovations are thrown at them, the portal writes. Some brands advertise autonomous driving functions under the keyword NOA, others with "NCA", "AEB", "NOP" and so on.

What is an AI car robot?

Baidu and Geely are promoting the vehicles of their joint venture as "AI car robots". Exactly what that is supposed to be is apparently not quite easy to convey from the marketing department. In any case, the slogan is not yet resonating quite right with car buyers in China. "Consumers who know nothing about cars think of a transformer when they hear about this car," writes Qiche Tongxunshe.

Improve environmental perception

So a bit too much science fiction, even for the tech-savvy Chinese? Possibly, if even the trade press is having trouble understanding the innovation that Baidu and Geely just presented at their "AI Day 2024."

At the center of an announced update, which is to be gradually implemented for the Ji Yue cars, is a new software called Apollo Vision Takes All (VTA), which is supposed to improve environmental perception thanks to generative AI. Functions important for autonomous driving such as dynamic and static object recognition, temporal tracking, real-time mapping, and interpreting scenarios from road traffic will then be "significantly better" according to a Baidu manager on AI Day.

Xia Yaping, the CEO of Ji Yue, has no qualms about venturing into science fiction. "In the 3.0 era of smart cars, robotization will be the main development trend for cars," Xia said at the AI event. "And just like the cars in science fiction films, only cars that have the ability to communicate naturally, move freely, and evolve independently can be referred to as real robot cars."

AI meets mapping.

Baidu sees itself as a technology leader in autonomous driving, being the only company that invests heavily in research and development of artificial intelligence as well as having its own mapping capabilities. Baidu Maps, the Chinese equivalent to Google Maps, has developed the so-called Lane Definition Map (LD Map). Cars equipped with cameras provide feedback and algorithms refine the maps to such an extent that even changing lanes anywhere in China becomes possible without Lidar. AI and large models now take over much of what used to be done by manual programming. Hundreds of cars equipped with recording devices are currently being sent through China's cities, collecting data with the precision necessary for L4 level autonomous driving, according to Baidu's managers.

Highly accurate maps in series.

The algorithms and generative AI now ensure that high-precision maps can be produced in series without much manual input. This creates a new form of perception no longer primarily for the car driver, but for the intelligent, autonomous cars of the future. And AI is now significantly speeding up the whole process. Currently, a new Chinese city can be added to this network every day, it was said at the AI Day.

Music of the future with potential.

The problem remains of finding car manufacturers who will soon integrate this high-tech into their models. The price war in China, combined with the consumers' lack of understanding, currently makes Baidu and Geely's visions seem like little more than an interesting view of the future. However, this is a vision of the future with lots of potential. The cars from Ji Yue are supposed to have advanced autonomous driving functions as early as this year, wherever there are Baidu maps. That would be almost everywhere. Now, Ji Yue just needs to make sure that its cars also find buyers. (se)

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