Without drivers, a fleet of 18 autonomous vehicles drove along the city’s Ziye Road, as a demonstration for the technology gurus arriving from around the globe for the three-day event, which started on Wednesday. The cars will be available for delegates to try out throughout the week.
The first passengers were taken on a 10-minute, 3-kilometre test run in the blue-striped driverless cars. Baidu has co-produced the vehicles based on three existing car models: BYD’s plug-in hybrid compact sedan Qin, Chery Automobile’s minicar model EQ and BAIC’s compact sedan EU260. The company is partnering with German car maker BMW in building the cars.