Autonomous driving vehicles may sound like science fiction, but they are racing into our daily lives sooner than many expected. Nowadays, people can hail (打车) robotaxis by using ride-hailing apps on their mobile phones in certain areas of Wuzhen, Zhejiang province.
All they need to do is to input pickup and drop-off points and the number of passengers and—a self-driving taxi approaches—with a safety operator sitting behind the wheel to monitor the vehicle for safety.
The vehicle runs smoothly and is capable of fully recognizing stop signs as it automatically decelerates before finally coming to a stop. As traffic lights change from red to green, the taxi moves through the crossings.
Last December, Baidu officially opened its Apollo Park in Wuzhen, which serves as an important R&D, design, application and testing base for autonomous vehicles in the Yangtze River Delta region.
As the fourth demonstration base for intelligent-connected vehicles built by Baidu in China, the park is equipped with facilities such as a vehicle-road coordination (协调) system, remote vehicle control platform, operation center and 5G-powered cockpit control system.
Baidu plans to expand Apollo Go services to 65 cities in 2025, and 100 in 2030, said Robin Li, CEO of the company. “The massively reduced costs will enable us to deploy (调动) tens of thousands of autonomous vehicles across China. We are moving toward a future where taking a robotaxi will be half the cost of taking a taxi today.”
So far, Baidu Apollo’s L4 autonomous vehicles have run more than 36 million kilometers, with 718 autonomous driving permits in China, including 571 for carrying passengers. L4 autonomy means the vehicle can drive by itself under most circumstances, without a human driver.
Baidu Apollo has rolled out robotaxi ride-hailing services in more than 10 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Yang Diange, a professor from the School of Vehicle and Mobility at Tsinghua University, said the commercial operation of self-driving vehicles will promote the innovation of technologies, and help companies explore reasonable business models, thus allowing autonomous driving technologies to create more value.
4. What does the underlined word “decelerate” mean in Paragraph 3?
A.Speed up. | B.Switch off. |
C.Stretch out. | D.Slow down. |
5. Which contributes to more autonomous vehicles in China?
A.Lower cost. | B.5G-powered control system. |
C.Ultimate safety. | D.Convenient ride-hailing services. |
6. What is Yang Diange’s attitude to the commercial operation of self-driving vehicles?
A.Cautious. | B.Supportive. |
C.Doubtful. | D.Unclear. |
7. What can be the best title for the text?
A.Baidu, a tech pioneer |
B.Baidu and its Apollo Parks |
C.Autonomous driving taxis taking market by storm |
D.Autonomous driving taxis replacing traditional ones overnight |