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Driverless car hits person crossing red light in China
A driverless shuttle car in China has hit a pedestrian, and people on social media are siding with the automaker because the person was allegedly crossing the street at a red light.
July 9, 2024, 4:23 AM ET
• 2 min read
BEIJING — A self-driving ride-sharing car in China has hit a pedestrian, and people on social media are siding with the automaker because the person allegedly ran a red light.
The vehicle’s operator, the Chinese technology giant Baidu, Baidu said in a statement to Chinese media that the car started moving when the light turned green and had a minor contact with the pedestrian. The person was taken to a hospital where an examination found no obvious external injuries, Baidu said.
The incident on Sunday in the city of Wuhan highlights the challenge autonomous driving faces in complex situations, Chinese financial news outlet Yicai reported. It cited an expert as saying the technology may have limitations when dealing with unconventional behavior, such as other vehicles or pedestrians violating traffic laws.
Images posted online showed a person sitting on the street in front of the self-driving car with its sensors on its roof. Comments on social media largely supported Baidu, pointing out that the pedestrian had broken the law, the English-language Shanghai Daily newspaper said in a post on X.
Beijing-based search engine and artificial intelligence company Baidu is a leader in autonomous driving development in China. Its largest “robotaxi” operation, with a fleet of 300 cars, is in Wuhan, a major city in central China that saw the world’s first major outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020.
Apollo goes, as the ride-hailing service is called, also operates in smaller parts of three other Chinese cities — Beijing, Shenzhen and Chongqing. The company launched the sixth generation of its driverless taxi in May, saying it had cut the unit cost by more than half, to less than $30,000.