The streets of Shougang Industrial Park in Beijing, an area formerly home to steel production and now one of the venues for the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics, are still dominated by cooling towers and steel mills. Yet chances are visitors’ attention is caught by the self-driving vehicles—buses, robotaxis, and delivery machines—riding across the area.
One company with a major presence in the park is Baidu, the Chinese tech giant that, to the West, is still mostly known as the creator of China’s answer to Google. Baidu is, however, becoming a leading player in autonomous driving technology since the establishment of its self-driving unit Apollo in 2017.
In Shougang, Baidu runs a free self-driving bus service named Apolong, and a paid fully autonomous ride-hailing service called Apollo Go, which was just introduced at the beginning of May. The KrASIA team visited the venue to give you a glimpse into the future of personal transportation.
To find out more about our experience, check out this video:
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