Click on the article link to see the lady climbing out of the trench.
Self-Driving Taxi Falls Into Construction Pit in Chinahttps://www.iotworldtoday.com/transport ... lose-modal
Remarkable footage being shared widely online has sparked fears over self-driving taxi safety in China – after a Baidu autonomous vehicle ended up in a large pit on the road at a construction site.
The incident happened in the mega city of Chongqing, and video of the aftermath appears to show a female passenger, seemingly uninjured, clambering out of the pit via a ladder, assisted by onlookers.
The Baidu cab, with Apollo Go branding, is clearly visible – stuck sideways at the bottom of the trench.
How the incident happened remains a mystery and there has been no official explanation yet from Baidu, the Chinese internet giant which has established itself as one of the world’s leading self-driving taxi providers.
Although Chinese media outlets reported that the site was marked out by barriers and signs – which a self-driving taxi should be able to detect, via its array of sensors – the actual footage simply shows a massive trench that did not appear to be roped off from the road, with pedestrians (including children) and other road users seemingly able to get right up to its unprotected edges.
The problems unmarked pits of this nature can potentially cause self-driving taxis have been recognized in the industry for some time.
In 2023, U.S. investigative outlet The Intercept claimed to have seen internal chat logs at General Motors’ new defunct Cruise self-driving taxi operation that acknowledged the firm’s AVs struggled to detect large holes in the road.
A report – which is still online – stated that Cruise was aware its cars couldn’t detect holes, “including large construction pits with workers inside”, and internal assessments stated this constituted “a major flaw.” Indeed, such was the scale of the issue, Cruise believed that even with the small fleet of robotaxis it was operating at the time, one of them would drive into an unoccupied pit broadly once a year.
Apollo Go, Baidu’s driverless ride-hailing service, operates in 15 cities worldwide with more than 1,000 self-driving taxis across its entire fleet.
The firm has been extremely bullish about its global expansion plans, having recently announced a deal with Uber to deploy thousands of its robotaxis across Asia and the Middle East over the next few years, and a similar arrangement with Lyft to do likewise in Europe.
However, the reaction to the footage in Chongqing is likely to serve as a reminder to the company – and indeed the industry as a whole – that despite the dramatic scaling, self-driving taxis will continue to be held to a higher standard than human driven vehicles until safety is proven beyond doubt.
Login
Register
FAQ
