(Yicai Global) Nov. 8 -- Cars that can drive themselves will be much safer than those handled by humans, according to Wei Dong, vice president of Baidu’s intelligent driving division.

Autonomous driving will be safer and more reliable than when humans are at the wheel, Wei told a smart travel forum at the China International Import Expo on Nov. 6, adding that despite that accidents still cannot be ruled out.

After eight years of development, Baidu’s Apollo smart driving system can eliminate safety hazards in a number of ways, he said. It can now handle emergencies, ensure data security, and resist hacker attacks to reach the safest self-driving experience, Wei said.

Baidu, a Beijing-based internet search and artificial intelligence giant, had completed 14 million kilometers of road testing for Apollo as of August, the company said previously.

Most traffic accidents are caused by human drivers breaking traffic rules or because of driver fatigue, Wei said, adding that the self-driving system has an inherent awareness of the rules and could technically operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

During the system’s initial design phase, Baidu specified a set of safety requirements for the vehicles, software, and hardware, he said. In unfamiliar environments, the system can ‘see’ with radar and cameras and get precise location, category, speed and direction of traffic through algorithms, which provide a basis for the decision-making module to avoid risks, according to Wei.

In August, Baidu released Luobo Kuaipao, a self-driving service platform that aims to push robotaxi service to a new stage of commercialization. It is available in five cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, and Baidu hopes to expand that to 30 cities to serve three million users over the next three years.

Luobo Kuaipao will gradually open about 150 test ride stations in the northwest of Shanghai. Free rides can be booked to bus stations in the Apollo-equipped robotaxis via the platform’s app, Yicai Global learned when trying out the service on Nov. 6. Each taxi has a safety officer onboard who can be take over at any moment, and the cars will strictly follow the speed limit and traffic signs to ensure safety and minimize any impact on other vehicles on the road, Yicai Global learned.

To protect user data, Luobo Kuaipao collects only necessary basic personal information in accordance with government regulations and stores the information with a high level of confidentiality for compliance inquiries, Wei said.

Moreover, the road information collected by Apollo during test driving and commercial operation will also be processed confidentially through technical means, in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, Wei added.

Editor: Futura Costaglione