Baidu Apollo and WM Motor Launch Two New Cars, Achieving Mass Production of Assisted Navigation Model

Baidu Apollo, an open-source autonomous vehicle technology platform, and WM Motor, a new energy vehicle manufacturer, officially released two new cars on Tuesday, both of which are based on the WM Motor W6 SUV. 

One is a new generation of the unmanned vehicle Apollo Moon mass production model equipped with LiDAR (Apollo Moon WM Motor version), and the other is a mass production model equipped with Baidu Apollo Navigation Pilot (ANP) assisted driving system and Apollo Valet Parking (AVP) autonomous parking system.

This also means that the cooperation between Baidu and WM Motor has completed full coverage from AVP and ANP to completely unmanned Apollo Moon models.

According to Baidu, the Apollo Moon version of the W6 and WM Motor W6 models with ANP and AVP both adopt the “ANP-Robotaxi” architecture, which can achieve data generation and sharing at the same time.

This version of the W6 is the first model equipped with Baidu ANP to enter mass production. The new car has L2+ autonomous driving capabilities, while the ANP function is based on Apollo L4 automated driving technology, which ensures controllable mass production costs and also takes into account user travel experience.

Baidu has pointed out that in terms of hardware configuration, the W6 with ANP and AVP model has 12 cameras, 5 millimeter-wave radars and 12 ultrasonic radars, which can realize higher-level pilot-assisted driving capabilities such as intelligent avoidance, autonomous lane changing, driving through on- and off-ramps and access to service areas. The Apollo Moon version of the W6, on the other hand, adds one custom LiDAR system and corresponding driverless redundancy to the ANP+AVP version, allowing for fully driverless capability.

The Apollo Moon version of the W6 adopts a range of 46 safety technologies and 59 travel service designs with full sensor and computing unit redundancy. Even if one system fails, it can ensure that the whole vehicle still carries out driving commands and brings passengers to a safe place.

SEE ALSO: Baidu’s Apollo Robobus – The Future of Smart Transportation?

At the same time, for the Apollo Moon version of the W6, all the sub-packaging processes before the production line are independently completed by WM Motor, allowing the production process to be further optimized. Baidu also claimed the robotaxi can achieve an operating cycle of more than five years and can be put into large-scale stable operations.