Baidu to start making autonomous electric buses

Not sure if I am supposed to be excited about these AV electric buses and rising competition. Something about all this is bleh.

"China’s equivalent to Google, Baidu, is about to begin serial production of electric shuttle buses that will self-drive in selected areas. And it is that autonomy behind that self-drive that may be Baidu’s concern rather than just making EVs themselves.

The strategy resembles the electric car projects of Google and Apple that positioned themselves as technology supplier foremost rather than turning into carmakers. In direct competition however, a recent report from California’s Department of Motor Vehicles showed that Baidu’s self-driving cars didn’t perform as well as those from Google’s sister company Waymo. Between October 2016 and November 2017, human drivers had to take over the wheel in Baidu’s autonomous vehicles every 66 kilometres, while Waymo’s autonomous electric cars required human help every 9 kilometres."

https://www.electrive.com/2018/05/30/baidu-to-start-making-autonomous-electric-buses/