For the High-End Self-driving technology like Google's Waymo and Uber, safety and reliability are the two key elements that the public focuses on.

Baidu believes that when safety and reliability become parity, consumers' emotional demands increases. That is why Face Drive was created.

Firstly, we took scanned the faces of all test drive participants. Based on his/her face, we plot it against the map to create a GPS route via our Face-To-GPS conversion application. Then we let invite the passenger to the test drive and discover for himself/herself a unique journey: Baidu Face Drive.

We set up an open day to the public on January 5th, in Sunnyvale of California. Firstly, we took the picture for all the test drive participants. Then based on his photo, we planned a GPS route for him/her via our Face-To-GPS conversion application. Lastly, the passenger was able to enjoy a journey unique to him: Face Drive.

Though this project was held in Sunnyvale, USA, This case study was released to the industry media and some of the mass media in China, where Baidu's headquarter located. Face Drive created media buzz worthy of 2 million USD, and 45% of the interviewees were interested in the test drive, 30% said they will choose vehicles equipped with Baidu's Apollo as the priority.

It's the first time that people combine art and artificial intelligence to promote an autonomous driving platform.

It's the first time that we add the warmth of the human to the cold of AI technology.

It's the first time that autonomous car not just addresses its safety and reliability but the fun of being a passenger.

Similar to Google's Waymo and Uber, Baidu, China's tech giant is developing its autonomous-driving platform which is named Apollo. However, unlike the both, Apollo is an open-source platform. That simply means it's the Android of autonomous-driving. Apollo is open for all to use.

17th October, 2017: Project kicked off.

8th of November, 2017: Face-To-GPS conversion application finished

23th of December, 2017: Face-To-GPS conversion application connected to Apollo driving platform.

5th of January, 2018: Face Drive open day.

Baidu'sautonomous-driving platform named Apollo provides an open, reliable and secure software platform for its partners to develop their own autonomous driving systems through on-vehicle and hardware platforms. Compared to a closed ecosystem, Apollo can evolve faster, bring greater benefits to members, and continuous grow.

Baidu revealed a major update to its Apollo autonomous driving platform at CES 2018, including support for new computing platforms, new reference vehicles, more HD mapping services available on a global scale and other updates. Most notably, the update will give everyone using Apollo the ability to drive autonomously on simple, relatively easy to navigate city roads.

Baidu revealed a number of new partners at the conference and announced that Apollo will offer full support for four primary computing platforms this year, including Nvidia, Intel, NXP, and Renesas. That’s basically all the major silicon providers working in autonomous driving computer hardware.