Recently, a video from a netizen showed that Baidu's unmanned taxi, Radish Quick, collided with pedestrians on the street. In the video, a group of people lay in front of the car, and traffic police were handling it on site. The accident caused some vehicles to be congested.
Baidu insiders told First Financial today that the accident occurred at the intersection of Yingwu Avenue and Guobo Avenue in Hanyang District. It was a slight contact between a vehicle and a person who ran a red light when the green light was on and the vehicle started. "After the accident, our company immediately cooperated with the police for disposal and accompanied them to the hospital for examination. After examination, there were no obvious injuries, and we are currently under further observation and rest in the hospital."
"Carrot Run" is an autonomous driving travel service platform under Baidu, and Wuhan is one of the important cities in its layout. On September 22, 2019, the Wuhan National Intelligent Connected Vehicle Testing Demonstration Zone was officially unveiled, and companies such as Baidu obtained the first batch of commercial autonomous driving licenses. In September 2022, Wuhan and Chongqing took the lead in releasing a pilot policy for fully unmanned commercialization, issuing the first batch of unmanned demonstration operation qualifications to Baidu nationwide, and issuing "three permits" - allowing vehicles to have no safety officers, drive on social roads, and provide commercial services.
On December 13th last year, data from the Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology showed that Wuhan has become the world's largest autonomous driving operation service area.
According to Baidu's Q1 financial report released in May this year, the number of autonomous driving orders supplied by Carrot Run was approximately 826000, a year-on-year increase of 25%. As of April 19, 2024, Carrot Run has provided over 6 million orders for autonomous driving travel services to the public.
On the financial report conference call, Robin Lee said that the proportion of all unmanned driving orders in Wuhan in the first quarter had exceeded 55%, and it continued to rise to 70% in April. It is expected that in the next few quarters, it will rapidly rise to 100%. "In early March, Carrot Run achieved 7x24 24-hour operation in Wuhan, further improving service coverage and vehicle utilization. With the continuous improvement of operational efficiency and cost reduction, in the near future, Carrot Run will take the lead in achieving UE (profit and loss) balance in the Wuhan region."
Baidu previously predicted that it is expected to enter a profitable period in the Wuhan region by 2025. Behind achieving profitability, the overall cost of the 6th generation unmanned car of the Carrot Run has decreased by 60% compared to the 5th generation car, with a price of 200000 yuan.
The recent autonomous driving traffic accident not only emphasizes the importance of traffic rules, but also reveals the challenges of autonomous driving technology in complex traffic environments, as well as the importance of safety response and accident handling.
In fact, Robin Lee, Baidu's chairman, was interviewed by CBI not long ago. When talking about AGI, he gave an example of driverless driving: "We have been doing driverless driving for 11 years, but we still can't say that this technology is mature. This is still a special scenario, and AI is not very mature."
According to public information, in 2022, a netizen exposed a photo of a Baidu Carrot Run autonomous test vehicle that was involved in a car accident. The left rear of the vehicle was severely damaged and the taillights were also knocked out. At that time, Baidu's official response was that the test vehicle was in normal driving conditions in the Economic Development Zone and was rear ended by a truck, resulting in a traffic accident. It has been reported to the relevant regulatory authorities for record as soon as possible. The cause of the accident was the illegal act of the truck not maintaining a safe distance sufficient to take emergency braking measures from the preceding vehicle.
Regarding the traffic accident that occurred this time, an autonomous driving related person told a reporter from First Financial that although autonomous driving technology is constantly developing, autonomous vehicles still face challenges in complex traffic environments, especially when pedestrians, non motorized vehicles, and other vehicles do not comply with traffic rules. The accident of Baidu Radish Run also shows that the auto drive system may have some limitations in dealing with emergencies and unconventional behaviors.
Similar incidents are not uncommon on a global scale. Accidents such as Google Waymo, Tesla, and General Motors' autonomous driving Cruise all indicate that there is still a long way to go for the maturity and improvement of autonomous driving technology. Implementing autonomous driving is still an extremely complex system engineering, which involves policies and regulations, application scenarios, safety, market acceptance, and is closely related to software and hardware technologies such as environmental perception, decision-making, and algorithm optimization in autonomous driving technology. For example, the auto drive system may not be able to make correct judgments in extreme weather, insufficient light or in the face of violations of traffic rules.
The above-mentioned individuals also stated that Baidu responded quickly after the accident and once again reminded the industry of the importance of traffic accident handling mechanisms and emergency plans before autonomous driving technology is fully mature.