Chinese search engine Baidu has announced its self-driving car software is ready for use by anyone who wants to download it, for free, to lure users to its open-source artificial intelligence platforms and gather data.
Baidu’s new Apollo platform provides free autonomous driving software to any company, including Baidu’s competitors, which can then be customised to develop their own autonomous vehicle.
The software is usable “out of the box”, according to Baidu engineers at the company’s annual developers’ conference on Wednesday. That means it can be used immediately with zero modification on a Lincoln MKZ hybrid and little modification on several other vehicle models.