Skip to main content

Intel and Baidu team up to make autonomous driving even smarter, safer

RSS: Safety Assurance for Automated Vehicles

Two of the biggest names in autonomous driving are teaming up. Intel and Baidu announced an agreement that will see Baidu adopt technology and practices from Intel subsidiary Mobileye as part of its own self-driving car programs.

Recommended Videos

Under the agreement, Baidu will adopt Mobileye’s Responsibility Sensitivity Safety (RSS) model in both its open-source Project Apollo and commercial Apollo Pilot autonomous-car development programs. Baidu will also use Mobileye’s Surround Computer Vision Kit hardware suite as part of an autonomous-driving system that will be marketed in China.

Unveiled in 2017, RSS is designed to imbue self-driving cars with what Intel calls “common sense human-centered concepts of what it means to drive safely,” such as maintaining a safe following distance and understanding that right of way is given, not taken. The goal is to create a standardized definition of safe driving, and a set of protocols that autonomous-driving systems can be measured against to ensure that they are truly safe. Mobileye and Baidu will work together to adapt RSS to Chinese driving styles and road conditions.

On the hardware side, Baidu will also begin using Mobileye’s Surround Computer Vision Kit. The kit consists of 12 cameras positioned around the vehicle, plus Mobileye’s own computers software to read and interpret the images, giving the car a complete picture of its surroundings.

Previously known for a popular search engine, Baidu is currently developing autonomous-driving tech along two main tracks. Project Apollo is an open-source platform, which Baidu claims is being co-developed with more than 50 companies, including automakers Ford and Daimler, parent of Mercedes-Benz. Baidu is also developing its own proprietary system for the commercial market under the code name Apollo Pilot. The company uses the name Apollo for its self-driving car programs as a reference to NASA’s Apollo Moon missions. Baidu believes developing autonomous cars is a comparable technical challenge.

Israel-based Mobileye specializes in developing cameras and accompanying computer-vision software for automotive applications. The company was bought by Intel last year for $15.3 billion, and together the two firms have pushed to develop an autonomous-driving tech platform that can be marketed to other companies. So far, BMW and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles have signed on as development partners.

Stephen Edelstein
Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…
A weird thing just happened with a fleet of autonomous cars
A passenger getting into a Cruise robotaxi.

In what must be one of the weirder stories linked to the development of autonomous vehicles, a fleet of Cruise self-driving cars gathered together at an intersection in San Francisco earlier this week, parked up, and blocked traffic for several hours. And to be clear: No, they weren't supposed to do that.

Some observers may have thought they were witnessing the start of the robot uprising, but the real reason for the mishap was more prosaic: An issue with the platform's software.

Read more
Officers confused as they pull over an empty self-driving car
Cruise

In what appears to be the first incident of its kind, police officers recently pulled over a self-driving car with no one inside it.

The incident, which took place on a street in San Francisco earlier this month, was caught on video by a passing pedestrian. It shows several traffic cops pondering about how to handle the incident after stopping the vehicle for failing to have its front lights on while driving at night.

Read more
How a big blue van from 1986 paved the way for self-driving cars
Lineup of all 5 Navlab autonomous vehicles.

In 1986, a blue Chevy van often cruised around the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania near Carnegie Mellon University. To the casual observer, nothing about it appeared out of the ordinary. Most people would pass by it without noticing the camcorder peeking out from its roof, or the fact that there were no hands on the steering wheel.

But if any passerby had stopped to inspect the van and peer into its interior, they would have realized it was no ordinary car. This was the world's first self-driving automobile: A pioneering work of computer science and engineering somehow built in a world where fax machines were still the predominant way to send documents, and most phones still had cords. But despite being stuck in an era where technology hadn't caught up to humanity's imagination quite yet, the van -- and the researchers crammed into it -- helped to lay the groundwork for all the Teslas, Waymos, and self-driving Uber prototypes cruising around our streets in 2022.

Read more