Baidu demonstrates fully automated driving without an onboard safety driver
Baidu Apollo demonstrated fully automated driving at Beijing's Shougang Park with no safety driver inside the vehicle. A 5G remote-driving service remained available for exceptional emergencies, preserving an offboard human fallback.
TOWARD DOOM27confidence 88/100
Why it moved the index
The demonstration removed the onboard safety driver from a consequential physical system, showing increased operational autonomy. It remained a controlled-park demonstration with remote human intervention available, which substantially limits magnitude.
AUDIT TRAIL
Assessment history
- R1Toward 27 · confidence 88
New source-verified September 2020 consequential-autonomy demonstration absent from the durable corpus.
11 Aug 2026