An autonomous Apollo Robotaxi from Baidu in Changsha, Central China's Hunan Province Photo: Courtesy of Baidu

Baidu said that it will hit mass production in the second half of this year for its autonomous driving system and will pre-install Apollo on more car models launched in the market each month.

Li Zhenyu, Senior Corporate Vice President of Baidu and General Manager of the Intelligent Driving Group, made the remarks at the Shanghai auto fair on Monday. 

He said the mileage of road testing for L4 autonomous driving has exceeded 10 million kilometers. In addition, Apollo's autonomous driving simulation test has surpassed one billion kilometers, while high-precision maps have been updated every minute.

Together with the Apollo Valet Parking (ANP) solution that offers an automated parking experience, the intelligent driving solutions allow users to enjoy autonomous driving in real complex urban scenarios in cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Baidu also plans to bring ANP to urban roads and highways in 20 cities this year and 100 cities by 2023.

Baidu also revealed upgrades to its intelligent cloud solutions to empower partners developing autonomous vehicles by enhancing their production process, understanding of users and car security. 

Under the autonomous driving cloud solution, Apollo will assist partners in developing AI production lines. With the big data cloud solution, Apollo will work with car companies on a closed loop for self-learning in a smart cabin that will allow carmakers to better understand users and provide them with a customized driving experience.