Baidu to enhance its presence in US with self-driving cars

Already quite the competitor in the space, Baidu dominated the search market with ease and essentially became to China what Google is to America. Like Google, they began rolling out numerous services like an online encyclopedia, a searchable forum and a mapping service. Competing with the likes of Microsoft Bing and Sina, Baidu didn't have much trouble keeping their lead on the search market, bringing them up to about 60 percent of the market these days. Despite their juggernaut status in China, their presence in America is minimal at best, but this is something they're looking to change in the near future by fleshing out a 100-strong team to work on their own autonomous vehicle technology in Silicon Valley.

在中国，百度在搜索行业内独占鳌头，地位几乎与谷歌在美国的地位相当。如今，百度也有数个和谷歌类似的服务，比如在线百科、搜索论坛和地图服务。尽管面临着微软的必应以及新浪的竞争，百度并没有花费多大力气来保持60%的市场份额。虽然百度在中国市场内一家独大，它在美国市场却只有一点点份额。但是，百度在硅谷组建了一支100人团队来研发无人驾驶汽车，希望借此在未来能够改变在美国的现状。

The team responsible for work on autonomous technology, called ADU-US, will be developing incrementally and by priority, building out the most vital features and testing them in controlled environments first. When the product is close to completion and needs actual driving data, they plan to let their clearly marked automated cars do their testing in areas that are already robo-vehicle friendly, such as specialized campuses and areas where Google's self-driving vehicles have received full approval. The team is set to include people of all of the various background necessary to make an effective automated system, from machine learning and automotives to hardware and software engineering.

这支负责研发无人驾驶汽车的团队被命名为ADU-US，会逐步地优先研发无人驾驶汽车最关键的部分，并且会先在有控制的条件下对产品进行测试。他们计划在产品接近完工并需要真实驾驶数据时让样本车辆在相关设备完全的地方进行测试。这些场所包括专业院校和谷歌无人驾驶汽车已经批准通行的产地。这只团队具备了各种人才来制造一个高效的驾驶系统，他们的专业领域囊括了机器学习、汽车工程、硬件、软件编程。

Baidu's senior VP, Jim Wang, spoke on the importance of the project, saying that "Baidu is fully committed to making self-driving cars a reality," and that these automated automobiles will "…save lives and make transportation more efficient." He went on to point out that this team will be playing a large role in Baidu's development efforts on self-driving cars. No specific timeline was given for when the team will begin accepting applications, when the testing of their self-driving cars will begin and if they will be working with or around Google on developing their own take on the future of transportation.

百度副总裁王湛在提及该项目的重要性时表示："百度致力于研发自己的无人驾驶汽车"，这些无人驾驶汽车能够"拯救生命，并且提高交通效率"。他还表示这个团队将在百度的无人汽车研发中扮演重要角色。目前，这支团队何时开始接受申请、何时开始测试无人驾驶汽车以及是否会和谷歌公司合作研发都是未知数。