Baidu tests driverless cars on expressway in Shanxi

TAIYUAN - A fleet of 22 vehicles, equipped with a Baidu Apollo autonomous driving system, completed a series of tests Tuesday in northern China's Shanxi province.

The tests were conducted on a section of an expressway in the city of Yangquan. The fleet was tested driving through a toll station and a 10-kilometers-long tunnel and on a bridge and straight and curved sections of road.

With an average speed of 80 km per hour, these driverless cars navigated 26 kilometers and completed cruising, merging into the traffic, changing lanes and other diverse scenarios on the expressway.

Yangquan and Chinese artificial intelligence giant Baidu signed an agreement in December 2018 to facilitate advanced technologies including self-driving and smart transportation.

A self-driving database collecting related data in Shanxi, as well as the country as a whole, is scheduled to be established in the city by 2021, which is expected to drive the development of relevant industries.