The "Google of China" to release a self-driving operating system for free

Baidu, the Chinese-American web services company, is releasing its own self-driving software, Apollo, this July for free. By doing so, the company may be able to transition itself to the forefront of the autonomous driving charge.

The president and chief operating officer of Baidu, Qi Lu, mentioned to MIT Technology Reviews that he wants to "innovate at a higher level." By releasing their self-driving platform, "Apollo," the company hopes to lower the bar for developing advanced driver-assist systems while leading to a more collaborative approach for the future of driving.

Qi Lu believes that much of the tech in self-driving vehicles continues to "reinvent the wheel." By supplying other companies with the Baidu self-driving software, the company can aim to establish itself as the brains that power vehicles on the road. This is similar to Google's decision to release Android for free in 2008, making it one of the most popular operating systems in the world.

Many of China's domestic car producers lack the resources to develop self-driving cars themselves. Baidu's technology could provide these companies with the competitive edge they need while giving Baidu the data it needs. Baidu is confident that they will see their technology operating on highways and regular roads by 2020. Lu said, "The fundamental motivation is [to create] an open ecosystem that will accelerate the pace of innovation toward fully autonomous driving, which will have profound changes to our society."

This transparency in research could mean a lot for the normalisation of self-driving cars. With more companies getting the jump on the tech, the quicker we'll see the tech taking over.