The second annual Baidu AI Developers Conference, officially known as Baidu Create 2018, opened in Beijing today. Baidu unveiled China's first cloud-to-edge AI chip, Kunlun, and many other upgraded versions of Baidu's AI products this morning on the first day of this two-day event. Li Yanhong, known as Robin Li, the founder and CEO of Baidu, introduced Baidu's latest research achievements in artificial intelligence (AI) field. Started in 2013, the autonomous driving project was mainly lead and developed by the Baidu Research Institute. At the 2017 Baidu World Congress in November last year, Robin Li stated that Baidu's Level 4 self-driving bus "Apolong" would be mass-produced by July 2018.

China's internet giant Baidu has started mass producing the country's first autonomous minibus as the company prepares to roll them out in tourist spots and airports. The eight-seater Apolong, about one-third of the size of a normal bus, has no steering wheel, driver's seat, accelerator or brake, Baidu announced on Wednesday at its annual developers' conference in Beijing. The driverless bus was co-developed by Baidu and Chinese commercial vehicle maker King Long and is powered by Apollo's autonomous driving operating system, Apollo 3.0. China's internet giant Baidu has started mass producing the country's first autonomous minibus as the company prepares to roll them out in tourist spots and airports Robin Li, CEO of search giant Baidu, speaks in front of an image of the Apolong, China's first L4 fully autonomous bus, during the Baidu Create 2018 held in Beijing on Wednesday The autonomous bus can complete obstacle avoidance, swerving and automatic transshipment without any human intervention, according to Xinhua News. Video footage released by Baidu - often referred to as China's Google - shows the company's massive manufacturing facility in Xiamen, in south-east China's Fujian province.

Baidu has started mass-producing its Level 4 autonomous mini-buses with the intention of deploying them not just in China, but also in other countries. The Chinese tech giant has teamed up with Softbank subsidiary SB Drive to launch a self-driving mini-bus service in Japan next year. They're bringing 10 "Apolong" buses to Tokyo and other Japanese cities in early 2019 after the vehicles make their debut in select Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shenzhen, Pingtan and Wuhan. The 14-seater buses will initially pick up passengers in tourist areas, parks, industrial campuses, airports and other geo-fenced locations. Baidu has also announced during its annual AI developer conference that it has already manufactured 100 Apolong vehicles with help from Chinese bus manufacturer King Long.