Baidu is about to begin serial production of electric shuttle buses that will self-drive in selected areas. The vehicles will be produced together with bus manufacturer King Long. From July the companies will start to produce a first series of 100 units.

autonomous electric bus baidu

Baidu can be considered the chinese equivalent of Google. It is now making huge advances in electric vehicles market, coming from the investment in Wm Motors, a Shanghai-based EV startup. Each bus, according to what Baidu said, will be able to carry 14 passengers, with 8 seated. They are to drive around confined areas such as airports, controlled by Baidu’s open source autonomous driving software, Apollo.

Highlights

Driver shortage pushes bus depots toward automation

Europe’s public transport operators are entering a period where staffing pressure and fleet electrification meet in the same place: the bus depot. Around 105,000 bus and coach driver positions remain unfilled across Europe (IRU figures cited in sector analyses), and a meaningful slice of working tim...

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