Last year, during the Baidu Create2021, Baidu AI Developer Conference, Li Yanhong, Baidu’s CEO, noted that by the first quarter of 2022, the company would officially announce its first concept car. In line with Li Yanhong’s words, today, JiDU, an automobile startup founded by Baidu and Geely, released the first robot car concept that features a dual LiDAR autonomous driving system.
Recall that in January this year, the Chinese automobile company released a promotional video of the upcoming robotic car concept revealing the dual LiDAR on the front of the car; now, a scissor door design has also been found in the car.
Currently, the car is still in the developing stage; however, according to JiDU officials, the production car will be 90 percent identical to the concept version that was exposed. Likewise, the scissor door is expected to be retained with a high chance.
Baidu’s Apollo has always been at the forefront of the world in terms of driverless vehicle research and development, and JiDU Automobile will incorporate Apollo’s driverless solutions fully.
However, it should be noted that the dual LiDAR’s point cloud field of view is larger and safer. In comparison to a single radar’s 120-degree FOV, the dual radar in the front of the car may provide a horizontal 180-degree FOV coverage. The capacity to distinguish pedestrians or obstacles crossing left and right is stronger in driving settings such as ghost probes and impediments on the left and right.
Also, essential areas of the vehicle are more precisely identified. The double LiDAR can double overlap in the area of 60 degrees FOV directly in front of the vehicle, resulting in more point cloud data on the target and higher recognition accuracy.
In addition, the dual LiDARs can be mutually redundant in terms of high-level autonomous driving safety, which is more reliable than a single lidar solution. With Apollo’s endorsement, JiDU Auto’s autonomous driving capacity is expected to surpass many other models now in the market.
Additionally, reports have revealed that NVIDIA Orin and Hesai AT128 semi-solid lidar have reportedly undergone a road test. However, as it stands now, the automobile company has not announced any official launch date for the first car robot concept car, but it seems to be around the corner. Therefore, stay connected with Techgenyz for more updates on the upcoming JiDU car.
