Baidu Unveils Apollo 2.5, the Newest Upgrade to it

BEIJING, April 19, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU ) today unveiled Apollo 2.5, the latest iteration of the open autonomous driving platform, which now supports autonomous driving on geo-fenced highways. At a launch event to celebrate Apollo’s one-year anniversary in Beijing, Baidu also announced the Apollo Automotive Cybersecurity Lab to further the advancement of safety in mobility as a long-term vision towards the development of an autonomous driving ecosystem.

Baidu has teamed up with China Automotive Technology and Research Center and China Academy of Information and Communications Technology to launch its automotive cybersecurity lab. The 1,000m ² lab, located in Beijing’s Haidian district, will bring together talent from Baidu’s Intelligent Driving Group with industry and academic experts from universities, such as Tsinghua University and Beijing Institute of Technology, to focus on in-depth research as the foundation for the sustainable development of intelligent driving.  

“Since the launch of Apollo, safety has been our core focus and is deeply rooted in the platform. We attach great importance to automotive functional safety and cybersecurity,” said Zhenyu Li, Baidu’s Vice President and General Manager of the Intelligent Driving Group. “As our research on intelligent driving technology deepens, we have an increased responsibility to ensure automotive cybersecurity. By creating this lab, we aim to set a new standard for research in cybersecurity for autonomous vehicles.”

The lab will conduct research into automotive cybersecurity technologies, trends and solutions for in-vehicle systems, car-to-car communications, the controller area network (CAN bus), and sensors. It will explore best security practices in data protection, in-vehicle infotainment, reference software and hardware designs, and countermeasures to fake signals that misguide autonomous driving systems.

Leveraging its capabilities in autonomous driving and cybersecurity, Baidu will begin to work with Apollo partners, including Chery, BAIC’s Beijing Electric Vehicle Co. and China FAW Group, to establish various joint labs in China. In the future, Baidu will launch research projects with universities, research institutes and cybersecurity teams, and will share their technology developments with partners in the Apollo ecosystem.

On Apollo’s one-year anniversary, Baidu announced the latest iteration of the autonomous driving platform - Apollo 2.5 - which will further expand its capabilities into a wider range of applications and scenarios. It implemented a geo-fenced, high-speed autonomous driving scenario, and reduced 90% of the sensor cost to better facilitate autonomous driving development. The latest iteration also includes vision-based perception, real-time relative mapping and high-speed planning and control.

Apollo 2.5 offers more efficient development tools, including a visual debugging tool, a data collector for HD maps and a simulator for cloud-based autonomous driving, to further enhance developer efficacy. In addition, Apollo’s recently-launched data and technology project, ApolloScape , will release new large-scale autonomous driving datasets and next-generation simulation technologies in China.

Apollo has now amassed more than 200,000 lines of code, which have been downloaded and used by over 2,000 developers and partners. Over 9,000 developers on Github, the world's largest open source community, have recommended Apollo open source software. After its most recent partnership with BYD, China’s leading electric vehicle manufacturer, Apollo has now brought together 100 partners with the open platform. Furthering its ability to advance the development of autonomous driving, this year, Baidu has been granted permits to perform autonomous vehicle road testing in China’s Beijing, Fujian and Chongqing.

“Intelligent driving is one of the most exciting technologies of our time. It will be a long journey, and we have the responsibility to make extra efforts to create an exceptional era in which we can achieve a safe intelligent driving environment,” Baidu’s Group President and COO, Qi Lu, said during his birthday wishes to Apollo via live video feed.

About Baidu Baidu, Inc. is the leading Chinese language Internet search provider. Baidu aims to make a complex world simpler through technology. Baidu's ADSs trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "BIDU". Currently, ten ADSs represent one Class A ordinary share.

Media Contact Baidu International Communications Intlcomm@baidu.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Do...07462712f7