百度自动驾驶技术走上开源之路

Baidu, China’s largest search group, has launched an attempt to become the Android of the automotive world by sharing its self-driving technology.

中国最大的搜索集团百度(Baidu)发起一项努力，试图通过共享其无人驾驶技术，成为汽车界的安卓(Android)。

At the Shanghai Auto Show yesterday, Baidu revealed its Apollo project, which it said was an “open, complete and reliable software platform for its partners in the automotive and autonomous driving industry to develop their own autonomous driving systems”.

在昨天的上海车展上，百度透露了“阿波罗计划”。百度称，该计划“将向汽车行业及自动驾驶领域的合作伙伴提供一个开放、完整、安全的软件平台，帮助他们结合车辆和硬件系统，快速搭建一套属于自己的完整的自动驾驶系统。”

The move appeared inspired by Google’s efforts to dominate smartphones by launching Android as an open source set of tools that other companies could customise.

该举动的灵感似乎来自谷歌(Google)主导智能手机的努力，后者把安卓设计为一套开源工具，让其他公司可以定制。

Baidu said it would open its technology in stages. In July it would share intellectual property for “restricted environment” driving, with technology for simple urban road conditions to follow this year. By 2020 software for “fully autonomous driving capabilities on highways and open city roads” would be available.

百度称，将分阶段开放其技术。7月，它将分享“受限环境”驾驶的知识产权，随后在今年晚些时候分享简单城市道路环境下的技术。到2020年，百度将提供具备“公路和开放性城市道路全自动驾驶能力”的软件。

Open-sourcing of automotive technology is not uNPRecedented: in 2017 electric carmaker Tesla offered tech secrets to rivals in an attempt to boost interest in low-emission vehicles.

对汽车技术进行开源并非史无前例：2017年电动汽车制造商特斯拉(Tesla)向竞争对手提供了技术秘密，试图提升行业对低排放汽车的兴趣。

Baidu had sought to develop autonomous driving technology through partnerships with Chinese carmakers such as BAIC and Chery, with which it has road-tested Lincoln cars in California.

百度试图通过与北汽控股(BAIC)和奇瑞(Chery)等中国汽车制造商建立合作关系，来研发自动驾驶技术。百度已在加州用林肯汽车进行了道路测试。

In artificial intelligence Baidu is widely considered to have an edge over domestic competitors and is regularly rated on a par with IBM and Google.

在人工智能方面，百度被普遍认为拥有超出国内竞争者的优势，经常被认为是与IBM和谷歌水平相仿的领先者。

“AI has great potential to drive social development, and one of AI’s biggest opportunities is intelligent vehicles,” said Qi Lu, Baidu’s chief operating officer, yesterday.

“人工智能拥有推动社会发展的巨大潜力，而人工智能最大的机遇之一是智能汽车，”百度首席运营官陆奇昨日表示。

However, a setback came last month when some of the group’s most senior talent quit.

然而，上月百度遭遇了一个挫折，其集团内一些最资深的人才出走。

Mark Natkin of Marbridge Consulting in Beijing said the open-source move was ambiguous. “One could look at this as an ambitious effort to jump out into the forefront of autonomous driving technology,” he said.

北京迈博瑞咨询(Marbridge Consulting)的马克?纳特金(Mark Natkins)称，百度的开源举动让人看不懂。“人们可以把这视为跳到自动驾驶技术前沿的雄心之举，”他称。

But it could also be “a step back from a wholly self-contained effort”.

但它也可能是“从完全自成一体的努力倒退一步”。

How Baidu intends to generate revenue from the open-source model is unclear. Shu Chang, a consultant at Roland Berger in Shanghai, said the data generated by the project would be immensely valuable.

尚不清楚百度打算如何从开源模式中获得营收。罗兰贝格(Roland Berger)驻上海顾问舒畅表示，该项目生成的数据将极具价值。

“The biggest driver for Baidu in this project is that through an open platform like this it is able to collect user information through the whole autonomous driving and car networking system,” he said.

他称，“百度在该项目上最大的动力是，通过像这样的开放平台，它可以通过整个自动驾驶和汽车网络系统收集用户信息。”

For car companies open-sourcing will lower the costs of developing their own technology, according to the IDC consultancy. “For the driverless car industry, this will lower the tech threshold for the overall automobile industry and help to form an industry standard,” its analysts wrote.

据咨询公司IDC表示，对于汽车企业而言，开源将降低研发自己技术的成本。IDC的分析师们写道，“对无人驾驶汽车行业来说，这将为整个汽车行业降低技术门槛，并且帮助形成行业标准。”

Baidu conducted successful road tests of fully autonomous cars in Beijing in December 2017.

2017年12月，百度在北京成功完成了全自动驾驶汽车的道路测试。