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Baidu Apollo is the autonomous driving open platform and automotive intelligence technology brand under Baidu Group. Established in 2017, it comprehensively integrates Baidu's technical accumulation in fields such as autonomous driving, artificial intelligence, high-precision mapping, and vehicle-road collaboration, committed to providing open, complete, and secure software platforms and solutions for partners in the global automotive industry and autonomous driving field.
Apollo's brand concept is "Making cars smarter, making travel simpler." Its name is taken from Apollo, the god of light and art in Greek mythology, symbolizing openness and infinite possibilities. As a pioneer in the system-level opening of global autonomous driving technology, Baidu Apollo has built the world's largest autonomous driving open ecosystem. As of the end of 2025, its automotive intelligence products have covered 211 models from 31 automobile brands, with a cumulative installation of over 9 million vehicles.
The technical origins of Baidu Apollo can be traced back to 2013, at which time Baidu launched its autonomous driving R&D project, becoming one of the earliest enterprises to enter the autonomous driving field in China. On March 1, 2017, Baidu established the Intelligent Driving Group (Intelligent Driving Group, IDG), systematically integrating relevant businesses. On April 19, 2017, Baidu officially released the "Apollo Plan" at the Shanghai International Motor Show, announcing the opening of the autonomous driving software platform to the entire industry. This was the first system-level opening of autonomous driving technology globally, known as the "Android of the autonomous driving field", aiming to aggregate global automotive and technology forces and accelerate the implementation process of autonomous driving.
Since then, the Apollo platform has undergone continuous iteration and upgrade. In July 2017, Apollo 1.0 version was officially open-sourced; in September of the same year, version 1.5 added five major capabilities including obstacle perception, decision planning, and cloud simulation. In January 2018, Apollo 2.0 possessed simple urban road autonomous driving capabilities. In April 2020, Apollo vehicles had entered 24 cities globally. In September of the same year, the autonomous driving ride-hailing service "Apollo Go" officially opened to the public in Beijing. In April 2023, Baidu Apollo released the all-new upgraded "Drive, Cockpit, Map" product matrix and "Baidu Intelligent Driving Open White Paper". In April 2024, new products such as ANP3 Pro pure visual urban pilot assist driving product, Baidu Maps V20, Intelligent Cockpit Large Model 2.0, etc. were released. In December 2024, Apollo Open Platform 10.0 was officially released, achieving Level 4 autonomous driving deployment supported by a single Orin chip. In January 2025, Apollo software framework obtained functional safety ASIL D certification. On January 30, 2026, Apollo Open Platform 11.0 was released, focusing on functional unmanned vehicle system design.
Baidu Apollo has now formed three core product matrices: "Intelligent Driving, Intelligent Cockpit, Intelligent Mapping", covering full-stack intelligence capabilities from advanced autonomous driving technical solutions to intelligent cockpit experiences, high-precision maps, and vehicle-road collaboration.
Intelligent Driving: The segment is centred on Apollo autonomous driving technology, providing point-to-point pilot assist driving solutions covering highway, urban, and parking full scenarios. Main products include Apollo City Drive Max (for full-scenario advanced intelligent driving), Apollo Highway Driving Pro (for highway and parking assist), and ANP3 Pro (pure visual urban pilot assist driving) solutions. Apollo Self-Driving (ASD) is an intelligent driving system fully upgraded based on large models, having achieved mass production launch on Jiyue models, possessing nationwide driving capability of "can drive wherever there is a Baidu map".
Intelligent Cockpit: The segment relies on Baidu's technical accumulation in AI and natural language processing fields, launching Intelligent Cockpit Large Model 2.0 and XiaoDu In-Car Assistant based on the Wenxin large model. This solution has been deeply integrated into mass-produced models of multiple car companies, providing comprehensive capabilities from in-car voice interaction to exclusive cockpit agents, significantly improving human-machine interaction experience.
Intelligent Mapping: The segment takes Baidu Maps as the core; the V20 version released in 2024 achieved nationwide coverage of lane-level navigation, possessing Vehicle-Human integration, True Lane-Level Navigation, Map Agent, and Vehicle-Human Interconnection as its four core capabilities. The SR Intelligent Driving version has been deployed in Jiyue cars and other models.
In addition, Apollo Go, as an autonomous driving ride-hailing service platform under Baidu Apollo, is the core carrier for the brand's commercialization implementation in the shared mobility field. The platform has deployed the 6th generation all-electric unmanned vehicle Apollo RT6. This vehicle model is built based on Baidu's self-developed "Apollo Galaxy" architecture platform, achieved a 100% vehicle-level full redundancy system, is equipped with 38 external sensors, and has a computing power reaching 1200 Tops.
Baidu Apollo has built the largest autonomous driving open ecosystem and commercial operation network on a global scale. As of May 2025, Apollo autonomous driving test total mileage exceeded 170 million km, owning over 5,000 autonomous driving patent families, among which the high-level patent count is number one globally, cumulatively obtaining nearly 1,500 autonomous driving test licenses. In terms of automotive intelligence mass production, Apollo products have covered 211 car models from 31 automobile brands including Ford, Lincoln, Cadillac, Buick, Toyota, Crown, Hyundai, Kia, Geely, Zeekr, BYD, etc., with a cumulative installation volume exceeding 9 million vehicles.
In the shared mobility field, Apollo Go has provided autonomous driving ride-hailing services in over 10 cities in China, covering Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Changsha, and other core cities. As of August 2025, Apollo Go has cumulatively completed over 11 million public travel services globally, with globally deployed autonomous driving operating vehicles exceeding 1,000. In some operating cities in China, Apollo Go has achieved single-vehicle break-even, and the single-city profit target is being steadily promoted. In terms of talent and ecosystem cultivation, the "Spark Plan" has donated autonomous driving vehicles and experimental platforms to over 30 universities nationwide, including Wuhan University, Fudan University, Tongji University, Beihang University, etc., building a "Teaching-Competition-Research-Industry" four-in-one talent cultivation system. As of early 2026, the Apollo Open Platform has gathered 260,000 developers and over 240 ecological partners.
Baidu Apollo's core technology architecture covers the Algorithm Layer, Software Framework Layer, Computing Platform, and Vehicle-Road Collaboration, forming a complete technology stack from single-vehicle intelligence to vehicle-road-cloud integration.
At the algorithm layer, Apollo is based on the Autonomous Driving Foundation Model (ADFM), which reconstructs traditional algorithms. It utilizes BEV (Bird's Eye View) + OCC (Occupancy Network) visual perception technology, achieving deep fusion of LiDAR and visual perception. In terms of planning and decision-making, it adopts a learning-based decision scheme and candidate trajectory generation technology, shortening the vehicle type adaptation cycle to within one week.
At the software framework layer, Apollo independently developed CyberRT, a high-performance autonomous driving computing framework. It supports high concurrency and low-latency task processing, achieving microsecond-level transmission via zero-copy communication, with performance improved 10 times compared to early versions. Apollo Open Platform 10.0 achieved L4 autonomous driving deployment supported by a single Orin chip, reducing overall resource usage by 50%.
At the sensor and hardware level, Apollo adopts a "core sensor self-development + general computing platform adaptation" strategy. Its self-developed LiDAR can achieve 200-meter ranging and 0.05° angle resolution for precise perception, while being compatible with mainstream high-compute platforms. It isolates underlying differences through a hardware abstraction layer, ensuring algorithm portability.
In the vehicle-road-cloud collaboration field, Apollo uses V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) technology to achieve a "roadside perception + cloud decision" collaboration mode, with perception accuracy reaching sub-meter levels. The Apollo Air plan, jointly initiated by Baidu and Tsinghua University's Institute for AI Industry Research, achieves open-road continuous network L4-level autonomous driving closed loops through pure roadside perception technology, enabling vehicles with limited compute power to also possess high-level autonomous driving capabilities.
Baidu Apollo is accelerating towards global market expansion, has established multi-level overseas business layout in Middle East, Europe as well as Australia, Southeast Asia and other regions.
In the Middle East region, Apollo Go has made substantial progress. In March 2025, Baidu announced the launch of Apollo Go road tests in designated areas of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, plans to complete fleet deployment in Abu Dhabi before 2026, deploy over 1000 autonomous driving vehicles in Dubai before 2028. Baidu obtained 50 autonomous driving test licenses from Dubai authorities. In January 2026, Apollo Go completed the first overseas autonomous driving operation control center in Dubai Science Park, undertaking fleet management, charging, software updates and safety testing and other functions.
In the European market, in August 2025, Baidu announced strategic cooperation with Lyft, one of the largest transportation platforms in North America and Europe, plans to deploy Apollo Go autonomous taxis in Germany and UK first in 2026, fleet scale will expand to thousands in Europe in the future. In December of the same year, Baidu reached cooperation with PostBus, public transport operator under Swiss Post, started unmanned taxi road tests in three eastern cantons of Switzerland, promoted in three phases. In addition, Baidu also reached cooperation agreement with Uber, will connect thousands of autonomous driving vehicles to Uber global travel network. Apollo has registered entity company in Switzerland and is hiring employees locally, ensuring data storage is local in Europe.
In Asia Pacific region, Baidu is actively promoting layout in Australia and Southeast Asia markets, relevant government negotiations are in progress, at the same time Apollo Go has expanded services to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, completed public road tests in Airport Island, Tung Chung and Southern District.
Looking forward, Baidu Apollo will continue to advance along three main lines of technology evolution, business closed-loop and global expansion. At the technology level, Apollo will continue to perfect the technology framework centred on autonomous driving foundation model ADFM, promote algorithms from perception-driven to decision-driven comprehensive upgrade, and rely on open platform 11.0 and other new versions architecture, towards functional unmanned vehicles and other high-value scenarios deepening layout. At the business level, Apollo Go is gradually moving from single vehicle break-even to group overall profit stage, with 6th generation unmanned vehicle RT6 scaled deployment and vehicle cost compared to previous generation decreased 60%, single city profit target is expected to be achieved first in Wuhan and other core cities. At the globalization level, Apollo will take Middle East and Europe as fulcrums, with "technology licensing + local cooperation" dual model steadily promote overseas expansion. By continuously deepening "Technology-Business-Ecology" positive cycle, Baidu Apollo's goal is to become the leading force among global autonomous driving technology providers and intelligent mobility service providers.
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