Baidu Launches AI Simulator Apollo World to Speed Up Robotaxi Development

At a glance

Chinese tech company Baidu has released Apollo World, an AI simulator (a program that creates virtual driving environments) used to train self-driving vehicles. It can generate up to 100,000 km of virtual driving data per day. That equals about three years of safety drivers testing self-driving on real roads.

Key points

1. 1

   Apollo World generates camera video and lidar (sensors that measure distances to surroundings using lasers) data in real time.

2. 2

   Using the generated virtual data, vehicles learn to assess weather and traffic conditions and to choose routes.

3. 3

   Baidu said it used this system to train vehicles for its robotaxi service, Apollo Go.

4. 4

   In China, several companies besides Baidu are growing their robotaxi businesses.

Why it matters

Building self-driving cars requires large costs for real-road testing and AI training, so virtual simulators like this can determine development speed and cost.