Chinese technology firm partners with BMW to launch new self-driving prototypes on to public roads in race with Google

Baidu – the search engine and technology company often called China’s Google –plans to release a self-driving car with BMW by the end of the year.

The Chinese firm has been working on autonomous vehicles for the past couple of years, recently partnering with car makers including BMW.

The two companies announced a self-driving research project in April 2014, driving test cars around the complex highways of Beijing and Shanghai.

Wang Jin, Baidu’s senior vice president, told the China cloud computing services summit that the company would launch a new self-driving car with BMW in China before the year is out.

The prototype car will be used to test road-readiness of Baidu’s technology, which will involve the car driving itself but still have human controls.

The race for the roads

Google recently unveiled a new series of prototype vehicles built from the ground up to be self-driving cars, having previously modified Lexus sport utility vehicles and Toyota hybrid cars for testing purposes.

Its new car aims to completely replace human control with artificial intelligence, reducing controls to a destination selector and a start/stop button. A version with a human driver will be tested on public roads in the near future.

Baidu is taking a more traditional route to the self-driving car. Its head of deep learning, Kai Yu, said last year that the technology it was developing was designed to assist drivers rather than replace them.

The Chinese firm has its own data-mapping service, which is a prerequisite to any automotive robotics project, and invested $10m in a Finnish mapping startup IndoorAtlas in September last year.

It also has undertaken extensive artificial intelligence research, including machine learning and the technologies needed for computer vision for cars and other robotics, rivalling those of Google.

But Baidu has one major advantage over its US rivals. Many of the driving-assisted vehicles on the road today, including the Tesla Model S, are technically capable of driving themselves.

Legislative hurdles

Tesla’s chief executive predicted that self-driving vehicles would be available to buy within three years during the unveiling of an “autopilot mode” for his Model S electric car, which will be capable of driving itself to a parking and charging spot.

While the technology has yet to be proven, the major hurdle to autonomous vehicles on public roads is legislation.

Several US states have allowed autonomous test vehicles on to public roads, which has allowed Google to test its cars for the last couple of years, but drivers must always be present and capable of taking over at any time.

While the UK has a series of government-funded studies on the use of autonomous vehicles is underway, legislation lags technology in both the UK and US.

A series of complex issues about who is to blame if something goes wrong, what an autonomous car should do in an emergency and extensive safety requirements have yet to be solved.

China and Baidu could steal a march on the West through flexible legislation. The Chinese government has more power to rapidly mandate the kind of wholesale changes that would be required to unleash self-driving cars.

Pods, cars or self-driving taxis

There is still some debate over in what form self-driving cars will emerge. Automotive manufacturers are working on their own technology with the clear ambition of selling a traditional car that can drive itself - something Baidu seems to agree with.

Others are working on autonomous vehicles that could be seen as pool cars or a form of public transport, with driverless vehicles operating as shuttles or bus replacements.

While Google’s self-driving pods resemble the latter, Uber, for instance, is working on autonomous vehicles with the aim of running a taxi service that do not require human drivers.

• Google acknowledges its self-driving cars had 11 minor accidents

• Volvo to test autonomous cars with ordinary drivers on public roads by 2017