Vehicle Without Steering Wheel: China's search engine giant Baidu INC unveiled a new autonomous vehicle in which the steering wheel can also be removed.
The company is planning to launch Robotaxis in China by next year in which this steering is going to be used which can also be removed.
According to Baidu, it will cost 2,50,000 yuan - about 30 lakh rupees - which will be almost half of its old model.
Robin Li, chief executive of Baidu, said at the Baidu World Conference, after this huge drop in prices, we can sell millions of autonomous vehicles across China.
We are moving towards a future where Robotaxi will cost half as much as a standard taxi.
The new autonomous vehicle will have Level 4 capability with no human intervention. This car will have 8 liders and 12 cameras.
Lidar is a radar-like detection system that uses pulsed laser light instead of radio waves. The company has not yet revealed the name of the maker of this model.
Li Zhenyu, senior vice president of Baidu, said that after getting the approval of the Chinese authority, this vehicle can be brought to the market without a steering wheel.
According to the company, the driving capability of this autonomous vehicle will be as much as a driver with more than 20 years experience.
Baidu introduced the autonomous vehicle market in 2017 for the first time, which was named Apollo.
Baidu's robotaxi service 'Apollo Go' has operated in 10 Chinese cities since its 2020 launch, and Baidu said in April that received permits to deploy robotaxis without humans in the driving seat on open roads in Beijing.
